But 94% of seniors pay a considerable extra increment above these numbers for their health care. In addition to the Part B premium noted in the article and out of pocket costs primarily for annual physicals, vision and dental services (which are mostly not covered by Medicare), many seniors pay for an employer sponsored retiree healthcare insurance plan, a large group pay extra for a Part C Medicare plan, about 15%-20% buy a private Medicare supplement policy (commonly called Medigap), a small percentage are in the VA system, and about 10%-20% of us have to apply for welfare.

And I’m not even beginning to describe the premium/deductible/OOP complexity of Part D and the fact that about 6% of us fall into the infamous donut hole and about 1% of us kick over into catastrophic Part D coverage.

Your bar graph needs about eight colors, not three.

The CBO has also written that moving from current Medicare to a system in which patients pay more would increase national healthcare spending (reasons include that Medicare’s size gives it more buying power and that it has lower overhead than private insurance). That seems a worse problem than possible misperceptions in the details of Medicare financing.