BY SHARON MARTIN

I do not want a Medicare Advantage plan.

Please do not call me touting the advantages. Real Medicare allows me to visit any doctor that accepts Medicare payments. That works for me.

You can sell me a medi-gap policy that covers what Medicare doesn’t.  You can even sell me a Part D policy, a necessity since we were sold out there. Please, be satisfied with billions of dollars in crumbs until the United States becomes civilized and offers universal healthcare.

Who pays for your lobbying efforts, campaign contributions, annual advertising blitz, and robo calls? There must be a good deal of money at stake.

Your industry’s campaign to convert Medicare from a right for which we pay with our taxes to a for-profit endeavor will destroy Medicare. How many old folk will be uninsured then? Please, don’t!

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer. Her latest book, Not A Prodigal, is available through Barnes and Noble. Her recent children’s book, Froggy Bottom Blues, can be purchased in hardcover or paperback from Doodle and Peck Publishingand in paperback from Amazon.