The young man who is bragging about removing people from a bona fide medicare supplement plan in order to enroll them in a free plan does them no justice. By removing them from their private plan he is disenrolling them from medicare and enrolling them into a medicare HMO which may or may not have a premium. Yep, it is cheaper for them out of pocket, but their health care is extremely restricted ie they have to go through a primary care physician to get their care, and if they need specialized care they must be referred to a specialist. When can they get an appointment? By the way if their HMO is in Florida and they get sick in Ohio (non life threatening) they may or may not have their claim covered.
The bottom line is this. For every person a medicare HMO enrolls they are paid a per capita amount of money per month by the federal government. I'm not sure of the current dollars, but it used to be on the order of $600 per month per enrollee... each and every month. If an enrollee is healthy, its found money. But, when they are sick they get less than adequate care IMO.
Here in Florida a rather large colorful company made a big to do several years ago when they rolled out their Medicare HMO. In 2002 they discontinued it leaving thousands of seniors out in the cold. Not a problem if they are in good health and can qualify for supplemental coverage with a private company. But if they are in poor health they are SOL.
Tell the kid to remember: what goes around comes around. And that in the long we are all paying for it.