Medicare Advantage Plans Disadvantage Many Elderly and Disabled People

[Lonestarblue]

1. Advantage plans are great for the healthy but often not so great for the seriously ill.

I know people who have been denied further treatment for cancer even though the doctors knew the cancer was not gone. One nearly died waiting for the doctors to convince the insurer that their patient would die without treatment.

Advantage requires you to first go to your personal doctor, which can often take weeks or months to get an appointment, and then get a referral to a specialist (who must be in the insurance company network) which may also take weeks or months to get an appointment. The solution people in dire need of treatment often have to follow is the emergency room, which the Advantage plan may or may not pay for. Medical debt is one of the biggest categories of debt in this country.

I have original Medicare, and I can see any specialist without a referral. If I have a suspicious skin lesion, I can go to a dermatologist without waiting. And, yes, I have to pay for my own eyeglasses and dental cleanings, but those are small prices to pay for knowing that if I need serious medical care, I will not have to fight an insurance company more concerned about their profits than my need for treatment.