40% of Black Elderly Get Medicare Advantage. Dems Out to Hurt Those Poor People!?
Question:
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"MA plans — private health plan options that provide coverage to 8.3 million Medicare beneficiaries — disproportionately provide coverage to low-income and racial and ethnic minority beneficiaries. Specifically, 40 percent of African Americans without Medicaid or employer coverage rely on comprehensive health insurance coverage provided by MA plans. By providing more comprehensive benefits and lower cost-sharing than traditional Medicare, MA plans help racial and ethnic minority populations gain access to health care services that are critical to their long-term health and well-being."
Were any YA Libs up to date on important issues like this?
Do you think Pelosi and Hillary and Kerry will tell the NAACP to get lost?
http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/s...
Answer:
A similar question was asked:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
The responding liberals failed to realize that seniors are actually opting into this program.
Democratic opposition to Medicare Advantage displays their true colors on the health care issue. They don't care if private solutions work or if these solutions are preferred by seniors. Their sole objective is to Socialize health care.
While I am not sure about the current position of the NAACP related to Medicare Part D and its privatization, it seems to me that responsible members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have reasons to be seriously concerned about consequences--unintended or otherwise--related to Medicare Advantage plans currently in vogue.
Whatever one thinks about the Medicare--and health insurance in general--the truth is that understanding the complexities and nuances of policies and plans is difficult for the average guy or gal to thoroughly understand. Certainly this was so about Medicare even before the Modernization Act became law. It's even more true now!
Figuring out whether traditional Medicare or one of the new Medicare Advantage options available requires deliberation and thought and sorting through jargon. It also requires speculation as to what is going to be the best deal over the long haul. These decisions aren't easy or fun for someone who is young and who has great health. Seniors who often are not in the best of health and may become confused can be persuaded to "sign on the line" even when doing so may not always be in their best interest.
While Medicare Advantage plans currently being heavily marketed to younger, more healthy seniors may appear to be a "good deal" for some seniors now, there is legitimate concerns about how these seniors are going to fare when they are older, their health declines and insurers are going to be getting requests from providers to pay for more expensive procedures and medications. Managed care is great for everyone when most of the folks being served are relatively healthy and costs are low. For myself, I have have a trust issue. Call me a skeptic...I just have not yet quite figured out how to trust a corporation that has a goal to make money for shareholders --and must be focused on its "bottom line"-- to be responsible for ensuring that I will absolutely get the best care when my health situation "goes South" I admit, I'm not a genius, but logic and observation of entrprenuerial behavior compels me to conclude that when my enrollment in an MA plan becomes a liability for the company somehow I will be subject to higher premiums, be dropped from the plan or be forced to accept a level of care that would otherwise not be acceptable.
Medicare before the Modernization Act was not perfect--yet it was the most successful program we had to deal with the health issues that affect Americans as they grow olderI truly hope and pray that somehow traditional Medicare will be there--and be a viable option --for the folks who are going to need it in the future when their own health declines.
My prayers are that our leaders in organizations like NAACP and leaders of both parties in Congress will continue to engage in dialogue that will to ensure that older Americans--now and in the future--will have their health care and medical needs met without fearing that they are victims of a system that is practicing "institutional euthanasia."
Thanks for posting this question! Best wishes!
From the New York Times: May 9, 2007
"A Medicare Advantage plan generally does not coordinate care, does not save money for Medicare and has been at the center of marketing abuses.
These “private fee-for-service plans” allow patients to go to any doctor or hospital that will provide care on terms set by the insurer. In most cases, no one manages the care. And some patients have found that they have less access to care, because their doctors refuse to take patients in private fee-for-service plans.
Moreover, those plans may be more expensive than traditional Medicare for some patients, because the co-payments for some services may be higher. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission says that the cost to the government is also higher because it pays the private fee-for-service plans, on average, 19 percent more than the cost of traditional Medicare.
Richard S. Foster, chief actuary for the Medicare program, said “the additional payments to Medicare Advantage plans, above and beyond the costs” of traditional Medicare, were causing higher premiums for all beneficiaries and speeding the depletion of the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund for Medicare."
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