I got my Medicare card in the mail today, so it’s officially MY Medicare, too.

Long story short…

Since most people who wind up on dialysis aren’t working, it’s expected they’ll get on Medicare, which every person with ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) is entitled to. A bunch of good-for-nothing victims, leeching off the government teat, that’s what they are. I’m not sure why those limbness, barely-there dialysis patients I had the pleasure of hanging out with for two years didn’t just get jobs.

Technically, my Medicare, if I opted for it, would’ve gone into effective the third month after I started dialysis, so November 2009, since I started dialysis in August of that year.

I didn’t opt for it. I’ve had good insurance with last job and my current one. It didn’t make sense to pay for Medicare premiums that I didn’t really need. Medicare would pay 20% of costs. The remaining 80% would fall to the private insurance.

However, Medicare pays for all hospital stays, so, I suspect, had I opted for Medicare, I might have actually gotten that botched transplant at Duke in March 2011, after all. Instead there was that insurance snafu, and I waited another 3 1/2 months, receiving a kidney down in Charlotte.

Anyway, many months back, I found there was a problem with Cigna paying my bills. They assumed I was on Medicare, and I kept telling them I wasn’t. I was told it would all be cleared up. But it wasn’t.

30 months after that initial eligibility date, I should have signed up for Medicare, because that’s when my private insurance plan reverts to paying just 20% of costs. Medicare is then primary. Again, most people would’ve already signed up for Medicare 30 months earlier, so this would not be an issue.

I have to be on Medicare. So don’t f*** with my Medicare.

Ok, long story still moderately long.