Reply #24: In my experience it's been the larger cities that have doctors saying NO [View All]

I live north of Atlanta now and have had doctors that actually do bill Medicare. I just checked where you post from, and you may very well find good doctors there (used to live in Me and docs there are old school lol) - but it never hurts to know the landscape you'll be dealing with in advance.

I really don't want to be negative about it, but so many people think Medicare is the Holy Grail - it's not. Now if we had doctors who were not *bottom-lining* patients, who were actually INTERESTED in their patients' problems rather than their personal wealth - Medicare could be a good thing to build up from. Doing your homework in advance will prepare you for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Don't know about you, but I can deal with problems with a little warning. Especially if I know I'm going to have to be creative.

And don't be shy about going to your county health department to get help before medicare kicks in. They may have programs that can help you with problems for free, or low cost. Heck, your tax dollars pay for those programs -- make use of them.

Sorry if I scared you -- didn't mean to do that. But forewarned is forearmed.