Stop the Medicare "Advantage" Scam Before Medicare Is Dead

[appalachiablue]

Daily Kos, by Thom Hartmann, Aug. 5, 2022.

Congress must pass a law to stop the deceptive advertising of Medicare Advantage plans. Only Medicare should be able to call itself Medicare. Unless you’ve been out of the country for the past few years, you’ve seen the ads on TV featuring Joe Namath, Jimmy Walker, or William Shatner hawking so-called “Medicare Advantage” plans.

Medicare Advantage is not Medicare.

It’s private health insurance being offered to people over 65, with the bill paid for by Medicare. Once you get on an Advantage plan it’s very difficult to get off, and if you’ve been on for more than a year you may not be able to go back to regular Medicare with a Medigap plan at all. It’s also one of the most effective ways that insurance companies are using to kill Medicare for All before its even birthed, since almost half of all people who think they’re on Medicare are actually on these privatized plans instead.

Nearly from its beginning, Medicare has allowed private companies to offer plans to seniors that essentially compete with it, but they were an obscure corner of the market and didn't really take off until the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress rolled out the "Medicare Modernization Act of 2003."

This was the GOP's (and a few corporatist Democrats') big chance to finally privatize Medicare, one bite at a time. Bush's law authorized giant insurance companies to offer for - profit health insurance to people over 65 that competes directly with Medicare and - most egregiously - it let's those companies pretend that they're offering Medicare by using the brand name "Medicare Advantage."... More + 454 Comments,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/5/2114705/-Stop-the-Medicare-Advantage-Scam-Before-Medicare-is-Dead

[elleng]

1. Sounds like a good idea.

I've not studied any of them, but seems they promote confusion.

[Deuxcents]

2. Thom Hartmann has been educating us

On the difference n just what any confusion could be answered. I’ve listened to him about this issue for a few years n even now, I stop to read more. Enrollment coming up soon so be careful n know your options.

[appalachiablue]

3. Designed to foster confusion, increase profits and privatize.

[yorkster]

4. Read the whole article if you can.

Saw this yesterday, but couldn't link it.

This article by Thom Hartmann is the most in-depth
exploration of Medicare Advantage that I have seen so far.

The comments are also well worth reading.

[Skittles]

5. cue the people who will comment they just love it

UGH, YOU'RE HELPING TO KILL MEDICARE

[notinkansas]

9. And if Medicare is gone

they will surely not like being at the 'tender mercy' of giant for PROFIT! insurance companies.

[Skittles]

19. they actually already are

they just don't seem to know it

[William769]

6. Medicare Advantage Plans are doing nothing but ripping people off!

[lark]

25. Wrong!

I have a Medicare Advantage plan and I plan to stay on the HMO's as long as they stay true HMO's. I had major neck surgery and PT for months afterwards and only paid $250 for the surgery, then a $20 copay for the PT days. It would have been many thousands of dollars if I had regular Medicare. I had a supplement for a year, but I didn't use it and I paid a ton of money for it and the rx plan - not worth it at all. If you have sufficient low level problems, a supplement is good - but if you have ever had any major issues they won't cover you. I know they would never take me back because of my past cancer issues, so it's Part C for me for the forseeable future. I have saved many thousands of dollars with this over the past 4 years and plan to continue doing the same unless the terms change - which will probably happen if R's steal the presidency in 2024.

[William769]

27. You have my pity. NT

[lark]

28. ???

Not sure what you are trying to say, if you are being insulting or trying to be kind? I don't feel I need any pity for what I wrote. I had two accidents and that was how I was able to recover successfully without dying or being paralyzed or going bankrupt. I feel lucky that none of those happened due to my extra vigilance.

[at140]

33. Stay on Medicare Advantage. I like it better than Medicare

for same reasons you detailed. It is cheaper out of pocket!!!!
And Medicare advantage has never denied paying for anything my doctor ordered.

[at140]

7. We like Medicare Advantage

I have no health issues, need no prescriptions and not been in a hospital since 1990. I have zero medical bills in my 80's. I wish I could opt out of health insurance but Medicare won't allow it.

On the other hand my spouse has $40k medical bills every month to treat her cancer. She pays the out of pocket max for the year and Medicare Advantage pays everything above that. She has not faced any denials of payments whatever her doctor orders.

[True Blue American]

8. I have been on Medicare advantage

Had several treatments, laser eye surgery. It has saved me a fortune over the years. I know it is private insurance but also

know

they had to adjust to putting 90% of their profits into patient care. A life saver for millions.

[lostnfound]

22. Ha. I *used to* like private insurance...but just wait. They are fattening public up for the kill.

It’s a long term strategy. Maybe it will be fine for you but someday they will have so much power and clout they’ll rewrite the fine print. Many will be on chopping block, sacrificed on altar of corporate greed. You — healthy, no prescriptions — are their cherry-picking strategy and people like your spouse falls in a bucket that will get smaller over the years.

[at140]

31. I am not worried about long term!

Life expectancy after stage-4 diagnosis is 6months to 5 years. My spouse has already fought cancer successfully for 4.5 years. But as we know cancer is never cured, it can only be placed in remission. As for me, in my 80's I stopped worrying about long term on my 80th birth day.

[lostnfound]

32. May you both enjoy a healthy and very long life in these golden years

This morning I had a dream of someone I loved who died in his late 80s. I woke up sad but grateful, for the dream. I said “thank you” as I woke. A dream is better than nothing. In his last year I often told him that he was our treasure. I would have given a million dollars for him to live another ten years. He is missed, deeply. We were lucky to know him and to keep him for as long as we did.

It is privilege to know people with so much experience.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. From Thom Hartmann: Medicare Advantage's For Profit Assault On Medicare Exposed

Medicare Advantage's For Profit Assault On Medicare Exposed

For Profit Companies are stealing from Medicare through Medicare Advantage. Thom Hartmann breaks down the latest assault on Medicare by Medicare Advantage.

Why are private companies allowed to steal from Medicare? - 06/06/2022.



How Medicare Advantage Scams You & The Country

Medicare Advantage is a disadvantage for people who think they are getting real Medicare from the Government. The only advantage is to the the people who want tp profit off you and exploit the entire country.

Why is a private company allowed to profit off exploiting people? - 06/14/2022.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I have a Medicare Advantage plan and it's been very good to me.

Why exactly is it a scam?

I am seriously tired of this bullshit about Medicare Advantage plans.

[ShazzieB]

14. Read the article.

I don't completely understand the whole thing myself, but I think that would be a good place to start.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. I did.

And it simply doesn't match my actual experience with my Advantage Plan.

I have found it to be better than the employer-based coverage I used to have.

[notinkansas]

29. It aint bullshit.

The facts are out there. Read them!!!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

41. Shall I tell you about my hospitalization a year and a half ago

when I had a heart attack and I paid under $600 for an $80,000 plus bill? I suspect I'd have paid a whole lot more without an Advantage Plan.

[at140]

34. I think some people hate Medicare Advantage because

it is run by profit making private corporations.
I have seen nothing but savings from Medicare advantage.
They even cover my yearly eye glasses and dental maintenance.

[ShazzieB]

12. This article was very informative, thanks.

I'll admit to still being confused as hell about a lot of things (because the whole Medicare thing IS overly complex and confusing as hell, in general, imo). But thanks to this, I am now a lot clearer on exactly how Medicare Advantage plans actually work and what pitfalls exist with at least some of them.

My husband will be retiring in a year or so, and we will have to make some critical decisions about health care at that time, which I am not looking forward to. (Until then, we have coverage through his employer.) One of my biggest concerns is prescription drug coverage, because we are on multiple ones (especially him). The last thing we need is for our drug costs to suddenly shoot up at the same time our income takes a nose dive, so we will need to be very careful to make the right choices when the time comes. Every bit of information helps.

[Demobrat]

18. Check out Medicare.gov

There’s a very good tool that shows you the Medigap and Medicare Advantage plans available in your zip code. You can enter your drugs and see which plans cover them. You can enter the doctors and facilities you prefer, and see what networks they’re in and what plans they accept. And you can compare costs. IMO it’s well worth spending some time with.

[ShazzieB]

24. Will do, thanks!

[Historic NY]

13. If you do decide to get check to see if your Dr or medical group takes.

Medicare Advantage is a for profit insurance, which means they need to make money.


[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/beware-of-misleading-sales-tactics-scams-during-medicares-open-enrollment/2021/11/05/9c71fe86-3cce-11ec-8ee9-4f14a26749d1_story.html|

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. Doctors and medical groups all need to make money.

Is that breaking news?

[3Hotdogs]

23. Difference -- Medicare runs on 3% margin.

Advantage plans run on 10%. Remember the articles on the president of AARP's plan with his own helicopter and salary of - I believe it was $20 million?

Biden runs Medicare. Does he make $20m? Trump may have made $20 m through grift.

[at140]

35. Medicare Advantage save me out of pocket money

So why should I care if they run on 10%?
May be they are more efficient in handling bills and payments.

[3Hotdogs]

37. You should care because we would all be better if 7%

Of premium wasn’t wasted on overhead.

Co- pays could be lowered. Coverage could be expanded to those 50 and over.

Maybe people would realize that private health insurance is wasteful.

[at140]

38. What is wasteful is

More Money going out of my pocket than necessary. If Medicare costs more for the same treatment, then in my mind it is wasteful. Keep in mind every dollar I save on healthcare I can use for other necessities.

[BradAllison]

15. I honestly don't know much about it

Is it similar to the AARP offers?

[Rhiannon12866]

17. The Corporate Plan to Murder Medicare Runs Through Medicare Advantage - Thom Hartmann

If they can move more than half of Americans off traditional Medicare and onto these corporate plans, it’ll provide the political cover to kill off Medicare altogether—and they're nearly there now.

THOM HARTMANN
November 19, 2021

In 2003, George W Bush set up the destruction and privatization of Medicare. The end of "real Medicare" is getting closer every day, and Congress and Medicare's administrators are doing nothing.

Last Friday the Centers for Medicare Services (CMS) announced a 14.5% increase in Medicare Part B premiums, raising the monthly payments by the lowest-income Medicare recipients from $148.50 a month to $170.10 a month next year.

If you're trying to live on the bottom rung of Social Security (about $365/month), that's consequential. People with Medigap policies are also seeing their policy price rises announced this month

Two months ago I wrote about the Medicare Advantage Scam and how it can screw consumers. This price hike, though, raises the larger issue of what's happening to Medicare itself and whether the entire system may be out of business in a few years, in part because our government is being robbed blind by all these so-called "Advantage" plans.

It all began with George W. Bush, who'd spent most of his life openly and proudly campaigning to privatize Medicare and Social Security.

In 2003 Congress and the Bush administration rolled out a privatization option, allowing private for-profit insurance companies to sell policies branded as "Medicare Advantage" to gullible seniors who think they're buying the actual Medicare Parts A and B. As a result, today companies eager to rip off seniors are flooding the market, particularly with TV advertising.

As I note in considerable detail in The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich, Medicare Advantage is hurting traditional Medicare, because that system is paying the insurance companies, in most cases, far more than it would be paying to simply cover the costs of its regular Medicare recipients.

Medicare Advantage is also one of the most effective ways that insurance companies can kill a real "Medicare for All" system, since so many people who think they're on Medicare are actually on these privatized plans instead.

Nearly from its beginning, Medicare allowed private companies to offer plans that essentially compete with it, but they were an obscure corner of the market and didn't really take off until the Bush administration and Congress rolled out the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.


Much more: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/11/19/corporate-plan-murder-medicare-runs-through-medicare-advantage

[William769]

30. The increase expected next year will probably even more

Because of the expected higher than normal increase to COLA.

They want people on Social Security with no other financial backing to stay at the poverty level, which should be a crime itself.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

43. There's not going to be a Medicare increase next year.

It's actually going to go down a few dollars.

[mnhtnbb]

20. Pros and Cons of Medicare Advantage by Consumer Reports

https://www.consumerreports.org/medicare/pros-and-cons-of-medicare-advantage-a6834167849/

Hartman lays out the problem that Medicare Advantage plans are costing the government MORE per person than traditional Medicare. Duh. The insurance companies that offer the plans are in business to make money and they do it the same way they do it for people not eligible for Medicare: deny or limit coverage.

The Consumer Reports article pretty clearly identifies why or under what circumstances a Medicare Advantage plan would be a good choice--until it's not-- for someone as they become Medicare eligible.

I am--and have been my whole life--an advocate of a single payer health care system. Insurance companies simply provide a barrier to receiving health care services and raise the costs of those services.

People may like their individual Medicare Advantage plans, but choosing them does nothing to move the country away from privatized health care delivered via insurance companies to a single payer system.

[KPN]

21. THIS ...

succinctly spot on to boot!

[at140]

36. When single payer comes in play, I will be happy. But right now

I have only 2 choices, straight Medicare versus Medicare advantage.

I am saving hundreds of dollars out of pocket with Medicare advantage.
Not only that, it is easier to find doctors who will accept new Medicare advantage patients versus doctors who will accept new Medicare patients.

[StopDesantis]

39. It is a scam

I wish broadway Joe wasn't a pusher of this stuff. One of my doctor's called it dis-advantage.

[appalachiablue]

40. Medicare Disadvantage- perfect!

[Mr.Mystery]

42. But the "Gap" plans are basically good though, right?

At least that what I heard.

Not the same as "Advantage" . . .