Medicare Pays

"Who did you just give your social security number to on the phone?"
"It was my medicare number."
"That's the same thing."
"Who?"
"They wanted to send us six diabetic cookbooks.  Medicare will pay."
"So you just gave your social security number to a con artist."
"Let's just wait and see."
Sigh.
"We have two options here.  They will steal your identity and we lose everything your name is attached to.  Or they are legit and you are ripping off medicare (wait, who pays that?!!!) because you will never use those cookbooks and neither will I!"
I went to the chiropractor Monday.  A woman took me into the room and asked questions for the doctor.  One of her questions was did I want to be hooked up to the tens unit (big one).  I asked if it would help the doctor make the adjustment that I need.  She said she didn't know.  I asked if it cost more.  She said, "Yes, but the insurance will pay."  Oh.  So it's ok if insurance is out of sight and all of our rates go up because insurance will pay and we'll just pay the copay which gets higher and higher.