Like I think I may have said somewhere above, certainly have in this process - the Advantage plans having “no/zero up front cost” makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Look at it this way.
There is a large pool of money - trillions - contributed by employers and various levels of government to pay for the care of the sick. A piece of this pool is set aside for the care of people > 65.
Until recently, Medicare administration of the >65 pool was very cheap as a percentage of charges - much cheaper, more efficient if you will, than “private insurance” (which is neither private nor insurance). But the ability of Aetna and Humana, etc, to skim off the top of the employer contribution pools hasn’t caused a problem, because employers can raise prices, etc, and they actually don’t mind the skim for reasons too complicated to go into here.
But letting the money skimmers into the Medicare pool was a big mistake. Medicare is a BENEFIT PROGRAM for people >65. I am now 73, still employed and insured that way, and a lot of Medicare users are much older than I. Looking at the deluge of ads I get every “enrollment season” since 2015, I can’t imagine the majority of Medicare users are making wise choices if the go the MA route.
Let me tell you, if you don’t already know, it gets easier to throw a fastball by you when you pass 70, and more so when you are >80. It is wrong, and it allows what amounts to theft of personal contributions and taxpayer money to allow these Medicare “Advantage” plans to function as they do.
And, on a different note, for people here who don’t understand why there is a large group of voters who hate Republicans as much as they do, Medicare Advantage could well be exhibit #1.