Medicare pays for everything I don’t need and nothing I need or want to sustain my health as I age.
For example Stem Cell Therapy using your own bone marrow has a 30 + year track record of success and is less expensive and invasive than knee replacements. If insurance covered Stem Cell Therapy, or even Plasma injections, for joint pain and inflammation it would be even more effective and far less unnecessary knee replacements would be performed.
Functional Medicine MDs who have been to Medical school know how to diagnose issues traditionally but have an expanded toolbox for effective remedies that Medicare won’t enable or cover. Medicare PPO protocols need to pay for functional Medicine MDs of choice in order to enable longevity through new anti-aging research and treatments. IV treatments or Infrared Light Therapy are expensive and hard to get access to, but if Medicare included these instead of or in addition to $10,000/month prescription drugs, people would be able to get access to these proven treatments at less cost and high probability of efficacy. Another example is common hypothyroidism where the patient isn’t converting T3: it make no sense to prescibe Levithyroxin, which is T4, to a Y3 patient as a standard yet Medicare will pay for T4 and not compounded T3 for a personalized solution. Traditional MDs have no clue about effective thyroid treatments. I know more about it than any Medicare Dr I’ve tried out.
Medicare Drs need to be required to be trained in the benefits of vitamins and supplements on healthy aging, instead of ignoring it or having negative attitudes. I’m not suggesting Functional Medicine instead of traditional care, I’m suggesting a whole new emphasis on healthier aging and longevity through Functional Medicine long before traditional care becomes end of life care.
Another example: Silver Sneakers is too limited and pays for classes, not real strength training: seniors need a plan to cover a gym for resistance and strength building, maybe even 1-2 sessions with a personal trainer, not just a class they can’t do or will never use. Not many gyms even offer Silver Sneakers and forget the online class which is not available to non-tech oriented seniors nor more ambitious seniors.
No one needs Functional Medicine MDs and treatment options more than people on Medicare who cannot afford high medical co-pays for expensive drugs and surgeries that could be avoided with earlier Functional Medicine interventions. No one needs more enlightened Medicare Doctors than Medicare customers. Since Medicare is required and automatically deducted from all Social Security checks, it ought to be a requirement to give Medicare patients access to Functional Medicine Doctors and treatments that are more effe tive and reduce disease care costs and needs. It’s common sense.
Tell me about it! I went to my Lupus doctor and asked if there were any vitamins I could take that would be beneficial and that nurse looked at me like I was speaking another language. They didn’t even bother giving me a token “You can take vitamin C to boost your weak immune system.” 
Perhaps Dr Oz can be of service by monitoring efficacy of treatments. So much of conventional medicine is seriously off target: Cholesterol. Thyroid management. Estrogen. Infertility. Cancer. Diabetes. Osteoporosis. Autoimmunity. They are a disease-treatment industry, which has it’s place. We also need a health improvement and disease prevention industry. I want government to research and eventually support this. Functional Medicine has windows into better approaches, but the door of inquiry needs to see beyond them. Pharmaceutical medicine has the status of an established religion. We see mandated medical treatments, also insurance coverage and payments for dead-end medical interventions. For my health concerns, I’d prefer seeing a biochemist/ physiologist rather than an MD.
One program claimed to measure outcomes. What they tabulated was the number of prescriptions clients were taking. Consider instead the country that mandated magnesium and potassium enriched salt, and nearly halved their heart disease and stroke incidence. (Dr. Richar Moore’s book).
There are claims that the Medicare reimbursement standards have had bad effects on available services. Dr Oz may see useful revisions. He may identify needed legislation.