* Consider "700,000 seniors whose private Medicare Advantage insurance policy was not renewed last year because her insurance provider quit the business."And that's just for starters.
* There will be more nonrenewals in 2011. This year's funding cuts to Medicare Advantage will be $2 billion; next year's will be $6 billion. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimate that half of those with Medicare Advantage policies—seven million seniors—will lose their coverage eventually. And 60% the doctors surveyed by the nonprofit Physicians Foundation said health-care reform would "compel them to close or significantly restrict" the number of patients in their practices, especially those on Medicare or Medicaid.
* Providers such as Guardian Life and the Principal Financial Group are dropping their health-insurance businesses.
* Last week Richard Foster, CMS's chief actuary, confirmed to Congress that ObamaCare's Medicare cuts couldn't be used to reduce both Medicare's unfunded liability and to pay for ObamaCare's expense.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are in total denial, dismissing the court's decision on the unconstitutionality of Obamacare this week and continuing to insist that he nation loves Obamacare and is against repeal. Total denial.
Read Rove's column and don't miss Peter Ferrara's piece in today's American Spectator, "The Legal Furture of Obamacare."
Must reads!
1 comment:
Has anyone read what these Medicare Advantage plans really cover?
In my area (Texas) they provide coverage for primary care but only 80% coverage to see a specialist. They, by definition, do not allow people to have a supplement. This system is great for a healthy person, but what about the unexpected illness (such as cancer)? Isn't that the purpose of insurance?
For illnesses such as cancer, they cover only 80% of infused drugs, once again with no provision for a supplemental insurance. That will break the bank in a heart beat. Some of the plans ask mandate a co-pay for each "treatment" (every day the patient presents for a procedure)-- a course of radiation daily over 6 weeks will add up.
Unfortunately, many people who take these plans to not have the means to cover the uncovered 20% and are drawn to the plans because of their apparent lower cost. The margin that medicare allows is so low that physicians can not afford that loss (as they say, what can't get blood out of a turnip) forcing us to make the painful decision of turning these patients away from our practices.
Based on the way the Advantage plans run, I don't consider their loss a huge problem. The real problem is the abject failure to deal with the drivers of the spiraling costs of medical care (and this failure goes to ObamaCare as well as the current, broken system).
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