Several years before Obamacare became law, I estimated that senior citizens on Medicare were being overcharged on medical bills by over one billion dollars per year. Things have gotten worse since. I told my friend that I sometimes feel like I am not making a difference and it really bothers me at times.

Today’s second Rapid City legislative crackerbarrel meeting covered topics such as education funding, teacher pay, video lottery revenue, crime and punishment, transgender issues, and more.

In December of 2015, a senior citizen client brought unpaid medical bills to my office and asked why the bills were not being paid according to the Medicare supplement insurance policy that he bought through this insurance agency.

The first Rapid City legislative crackerbarrel meeting of 2016 was held at the South Dakota School of Mines this morning. Topics included education funding, drug testing for welfare recipients, Initiated Measure 17, Medicaid expansion, and more.

The first problem was that although he had switched Medicare supplement insurance companies on October 1, 2015, Medicare did not update his file until sometime in mid-January of 2016. All the medical claims that were sent to Medicare before the file was updated were not paid because Medicare sent the claims to the previous insurance company rather than the current one.

On November 17, 2015, I received a copy of a medical bill for a senior citizen client who lives in Kouts, Indiana. The bill was for $1,702.92. I suspected that the bill was false. I phoned the client and made a three way call with her to both Medicare and her insurance company.

The costs with which ObamaCare has burdened the American people (a program that was supposed to lower our health care costs, you might remember from the promises) just keep mounting.

On December 14, 2015, I helped a senior citizen who was threatened with a collection lawsuit. She wanted to know why Medicare and her Medicare supplement insurance policy did not pay any claims on her medical bill.

Many people believe that government can solve all our problems. I challenge that idea. In my experience, the people in government who write regulations and proposed laws are unable to think of every situation. That causes problems for us “common folk”.

Everyone knew that it was just a matter of time, but no one expected it to fail this fast. Yet, that is exactly what is happening, as bad news story after bad news story about the state of ObamaCare arrives on a seemingly weekly basis.