I cannot express how incredibly lucky I feel to be old enough to have Medicare. For years I had Group Health Insurance (GHI) through the NYC Board of Education. We called it "God Help the Ill." Use an out of network doc? GHI reimburses you $32 no matter how huge the bill. Doc says you need an MRI? GHI gets to say "yea" or "nea," depending on the judgement of a CLERK. Most of the in-network docs were very newly minted MDs or experienced but old time hacks. Premiums went up 10-12% per year yet the out of network reimbursement stayed the same but the co-pay went up. For some reason, prior existing conditions were not an issue. Maybe because NYS ins. dept didn't allow it.

Medicare is not perfect but it's an agency already in place, would not need another whole layer of bureaucracy, has a 3 to 4% administrative cost, would become much more affordable were it to cover millions under age 65, etc. etc.

Just my 2 cents.