These summaries are from Kaiser Health News.
Do you see a pattern in all this positive news that is inconsistent with cuts in Advantage Plan payments by Medicare, a 9% health care cost trend and a prescription trend of nearly 12%? And oh yes, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that enrollment in MA plans will be 2.6 million less by 2019 as a result of changes included in PPACA.
What you don’t hear much about is the reduced benefits approved for 2011 or the fact that cutting $136 billion in payments to Medicare Advantage plans doesn’t happen until 2012. Dare we speculate that the health insurers who offer Medicare Advantage plans and non-Medicare plans will offset the forced premium standards imposed by Medicare by raising the premiums for the non-Medicare population? Cost shifting from government plans has been standard practice since 1965. That outlet to price-fixing by Medicare is the only thing that keeps the entire system from collapse.
Let’s hope (hee,hee) all this positive news is not just part of the PR blitz associated with health care reform and November elections. One thing is certain, there is nothing in PPACA that is positive for Medicare Advantage Plans.
Sebelius: Medicare Advantage Premium Costs To Decline Slightly In 2011
HEALTH COSTS, MEDICARE Sep 21, 2010
The Associated Press: “Seniors enrolled in popular private health insurance plans through Medicare will pay a little less on average next year, the Obama administration said Tuesday. The average monthly premium in so-called Medicare Advantage plans will dip to $35.69 in 2011, a 45-cent reduction from $36.14 this year, Medicare officials said.” According to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the decrease represents a savings of only about 1 percent, but that’s a marked improvement over last year’s premium hikes – which averaged 15%. The future of Advantage plans “has been a source of concern because the new health care law cuts payments to the private insurance companies that operate them.” But 2011 rates are frozen and “significant reductions are still a couple of years away” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/21).
USA Today: “Virtually none of the 11 million seniors who choose private health insurance plans under Medicare will lose access to those plans next year, federal officials announced Tuesday, despite fears that strict payment rates under the new health care law would cause some insurers to drop out. … ‘Despite lots of predictions of gloom and doom, the Medicare Advantage program … is stronger than ever before,’ Sebelius said. The government also announced that Medicare prescription drug premiums will remain relatively stable in 2011, and more insurance plans will eliminate a coverage gap included in a 2003 law to make the program affordable” (Wolf, 9/21).
The Hill’s Healthwatch Blog: Administration officials said enrollment in “the controversial Medicare Advantage (MA) program” will increase in the year ahead. “White House health officials said the numbers indicate that — despite threats from conservatives and the insurance industry that the new healthcare reform law will cripple MA plans at the expense of seniors — both patients and taxpayers will benefit from the reforms” (Lillis, 9/21).
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