Posted on 10/03/2009 4:44:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Among the $500 billion in Medicare cuts that will provide the bulk of the financing for Obama's health care plan is a $160 billion to $180 billion cut in the Medicare Advantage program, which offers a range of benefits not available to beneficiaries under basic Medicare.
Medicare Advantage should be Obama's favorite program. It combines all the elements he likes -- premiums are subsidized for low-income elderly, and the companies negotiate low-priced, managed care that emphasizes prevention, treatment of chronic conditions and coordination among doctors. As a result, its costs on the one hand and its premiums on the other are both much lower than with conventional insurance.
Ten million primarily low-income elderly have voluntarily enrolled in Medicare Advantage and realize savings of about $1,000 annually in enhanced benefits over and above what Medicare itself provides. These extra benefits include reductions in out-of-pocket costs and comprehensive drug coverage, vision, dental and hearing benefits, wellness programs (like gym memberships), and disease management and care coordination programs.
Medicare Advantage, which gained momentum during the Bush-43 years, essentially implements all the economies and efficiencies that Obama preaches nonstop. Doctors speak to one another, duplication is avoided, care is managed, and there is an emphasis on prevention.
The alternative to Medicare Advantage is Medicare supplement plans, popularly called Medigap coverage. But these conventional health insurance policies offer fewer benefits at higher premiums. They offer no care coordination, no chronic care management, no pay-for-performance incentives. They have no way to control costs. They just write out checks.
Because Medicare Advantage negotiates payment levels and saves money through bulk purchasing, inpatient costs run 20 percent to 25 percent lower than under Medigap insurance. More patients are handled through outpatient care. X-rays and other radiation cost 10 percent to 20 percent less, and durable medical equipment like wheelchairs, walkers and oxygen bottles run one-fifth less than with conventional insurance policies.
So why is Obama so keen to cut Medicare Advantage?
Here's a clue: AARP (the American Association of Retired Persons) does not sell Medicare Advantage. But it makes a vast amount of money selling Medigap coverage. AARP has had no higher political priority than to curb the Medicare Advantage program and replace it with Medigap insurance. The profit margins on Medigap are greater, and AARP has every intention of exploiting them with Obama's help. His price? AARP backing for his program.
The American Seniors Association (ASA), an alternative to AARP that represents hundreds of thousands of elderly, says, "It is outrageous that Medicare Advantage, a private program with premium assistance for seniors ... has come under attack." Stuart Barton, ASA president, notes that under Medicare Advantage, private healthcare companies "compete to provide care based on a negotiated price."
Obama's deal with AARP represents special interest politics at its worst. He has already negotiated a deal with the big drug companies to get their support for his bill (and their advertising bucks to promote it) in return for guaranteeing that the cuts in their prices and profits will be small. And, by cutting Medicare Advantage, he signed up the AARP too.
Obama plans to slash the premium subsidies to low income elderly for Medicare Advantage coverage. This would drive up the premiums and drive many poor seniors into Medigap coverage. And then, most cynically, he would take the money he saves on shortchanging poor old people and use it to subsidize the policies of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s who are, by definition, not poor (and thus not eligible for Medicaid).
And all this from a liberal? A Democrat?
Seniors voting for Democrats is like Jews voting for Democrats... suicide.
With Dickie’s ability to get face time on TV, this will totally sink any support from seniors and forever doom their takeover attempt.
AARP the new ACORN?
I am a senior citizen and I have never voted for the rat party, nor will I ever vote for any of them
It’s just Chicago style cronyism and pay to play politics. 0bama is just Blagojevich with a suntan.
My mom got one of these “packages” in the mail yesterday. She used to have AARP Medigap coverage. She now is covered by Humana. She was Soooo angry.
She's been a lurker for years, I told her she should post the actual packet info, but I don't know if she will.
When I looked over my parents' medical insurance package a few years ago I found that they had been talked into buying an AARP Medigap policy that cost about 25% more than a Mutual of Omaha policy that my wife's parents had bought that was easier to understand and covered more out of pocket expenses than the AARP policy. I got them to drop the AARP policy and buy the Mutual policy, which served them well unto both passed away.
I'm not associated with Mutual in any way, shape, or form, and I don't profit in any way from steering friends and family away from AARP. But now that I am also on Medicare myself, I wouldn't join AARP or even think of buying insurance from it if it were giving it away. AARP is nothing more or less than a ripoff of the elderly who are tricked into buying what they think is cheap insurance from a not-for-profit outfit, when in fact it is playing them for fools and using the profits to lobby Congress for every far-left wing bill that comes down the pike. It infuriates me to see an AARP commercial on TV claiming to be a non-profit advocate for the elderly poor, when in fact it's just the opposite.
you and the rest of the world are catching on— AARP is many, many government contracts and a large fancy building in DC where those contracts are administered.
She swore to me that ALL the members of her AARP group don't want Obama's health care reform. I fired back that it was CEO Rand who is betraying them.
She won't give up her membership because she doesn't want to sacrifice her "discounts" and cheap benefits..so it went in one ear and out the other.
sw
The roots of Medicare advantage began when the Repubs had the advantage in Congress (1997) and it came to full fruition in 2003 under Bush “The Terrible”. No wonder the dems hate this thing and want it completely destroyed.
From Wikipedia:
With the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Medicare beneficiaries were given the option to receive their Medicare benefits through private health insurance plans, instead of through the original Medicare plan (Parts A and B). These programs were known as “Medicare+Choice” or “Part C” plans. Pursuant to the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, “Medicare+Choice” plans were made more attractive to Medicare beneficiaries by the addition of prescription drug coverage and became known as “Medicare Advantage” (MA) plans.
“Here’s a clue: AARP (the American Association of Retired Persons) does not sell Medicare Advantage. But it makes a vast amount of money selling Medigap coverage. AARP has had no higher political priority than to curb the Medicare Advantage program and replace it with Medigap insurance. The profit margins on Medigap are greater, and AARP has every intention of exploiting them with Obama’s help. His price? AARP backing for his program.
The American Seniors Association (ASA), an alternative to AARP that represents hundreds of thousands of elderly, says, “It is outrageous that Medicare Advantage, a private program with premium assistance for seniors ... has come under attack.” Stuart Barton, ASA president, notes that under Medicare Advantage, private healthcare companies “compete to provide care based on a negotiated price.”
Obama’s deal with AARP represents special interest politics at its worst. He has already negotiated a deal with the big drug companies to get their support for his bill (and their advertising bucks to promote it) in return for guaranteeing that the cuts in their prices and profits will be small. And, by cutting Medicare Advantage, he signed up the AARP too.
Obama plans to slash the premium subsidies to low income elderly for Medicare Advantage coverage. This would drive up the premiums and drive many poor seniors into Medigap coverage. And then, most cynically, he would take the money he saves on shortchanging poor old people and use it to subsidize the policies of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s who are, by definition, not poor (and thus not eligible for Medicaid).
And all this from a liberal? A Democrat?”
I'm a senior-in training.
I refuse to call them rats....it gives rats a bad name.
It has to be stopped in it's tracks as a huge rip-off of unsuspecting seniors!!!
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