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Posted on 07/30/2025 12:43:56 PM PDT by george76
As Congress debates how to rein in federal spending, some experts say aspects of Medicare Advantage should be on the chopping block, starting with $86 billion a year in taxpayer-funded supplemental benefits that often go unused or unverified.
The federal government pays Medicare Advantage plans rebate dollars to cover extra services, including dental, vision, hearing, and over-the-counter drugs. However, a 2024 study published by JAMA Network Open found that only $3.9 billion of that money went toward dental, vision and hearing benefits.
Meanwhile, the industry spent an estimated $16 billion on $1,000 “Flex Cards” for new enrollees – prepaid cash cards often used for groceries, utility bills and even cable TV. Critics say the cards are mostly a marketing gimmick and don’t improve health outcomes.
“Amazingly, Medicare plans aren't required to tell regulators how much they spend on medical and prescription drug claims,” health policy expert Mark Merritt said in a statement. “This is a recipe for ghost benefits that look good on paper but can’t be accessed due to red tape and high out-of-pocket costs.”
Medicare requires insurers to project how they will spend their rebates, but not to report how they spend them. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) doesn’t verify whether the benefits are used or delivered.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) flagged the issue in its June 2025 report to Congress.
It found a “fundamental lack of transparency” around how rebate dollars are spent and questioned whether these benefits improve outcomes or just boost insurance company profits.
Medicare Advantage plans also receive $40 billion this year in risk-adjusted payments and $12.7 billion in quality bonus payments. However, oversight is limited. A Wall Street Journal report found that $50 billion from 2018 to 2021 was paid based on diagnoses submitted by the plans themselves, not by doctors.
Plans are required to spend at least 85% of revenue on care and “quality improvements,” but CMS allows the $86 billion in supplemental rebates to count toward that number – even though most of it funds non-medical perks. That includes programs that restrict care, like prior authorization and AI-based claims denial systems.
Congress recently cut $9 billion through a rescissions measure – primarily foreign aid and public broadcasting money. The Medicare Advantage program alone gets nearly 10 times that in unverified perks.
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How about we move toward getting the US Government OUT of its unconstitutional adventure in providing a mandatory old-age pension and retirement plan?
If we had a functioning press, they would be hailing the improvements.
Lot’s of RAT campaigns are missing their cheese this electon cycle?
But I don’t want to eat Alpo and have to go to a vet.
Good. The Medicare Advantage program has always been a scam.
Medicare Advantage is unsustainable. It’s “too good to be true”.
Post Of The Week™.
Medicare advantage is a rip off... big democrat program to help white liberal 'elites' running the scam.
So now “they” want to get rid of Medicare Advantage Plans for things like dental, vision and hearing, which millions depend on and which Medicare does not cover.
Why not just imitate China and have no safety net at all? Think of the money that would be saved! Funeral parlors would be make fortunes as older Americans die off at even younger ages, even faster!
Pure genius!
Or we could just get rid of the so-called experts and save a lot of trouble and money.
Am guessing that “DOGE” didn’t make it to them, or they were blocked/redirected for some glorious reason.
But I don’t want to eat Alpo and have to go to a vet.
—
Dog food has improved a lot from the Alpo days, its almost human food now. But the vet situation has deteriorated and is almost as expensive as regular medical institutions, and the vets have funny accents to boot.
You need to reread the article.
Be my guest.
You can have your meeting to promote the plan in a phone booth.
“”Medicare Advantage plans rebate dollars to cover extra services, including dental, vision, hearing, and over-the-counter drugs.””
It’s getting so we need a “glossary” to identify the meaning of words anymore. I don’t understand WHY “rebate” is used in this context. Those are the benefits of choosing a Medicare Advantage plan and not a “rebate” for anything if using its proper meaning - buy something, pay cash, get a rebate. Not the same at all.
Do we need dictionaries today for us old folks and ones for the younger set? Same with ANNEX when we associate that with an entirely different meaning than ADDING to documents...appendage? I understand words can be used differently than we have normally used them....just weird to come across so many changes...
I got a credit card from Humana saying it’s a $100 monthly credit for over-the-counter drugs and I can accumulate that $100 over 12 months.
I went into Walmart and tried to buy a handful of items, only to have the machine state the card covered only half of them.
I still can’t find a list of what is allowed. You find out at checkout.
Dems and their propaganda media have convinced people “The Big Beautiful Bill cuts Medicare benefits from people we can’t survive without it so they can give budget money to their billionaire friends.”
So discrimination against Ghosts now and their money cut off just for being dead at the time?
Who you gonna call?
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