2014
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If you are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan (Part C), you probably enjoy benefits beyond those in traditional Medicare and your premiums are far less than Medigap coverage and perhaps zero. That sounds like a good deal.
If an insurance company can provide more for less, why not take it? Medicare Advantage plans were added to Medicare on the basis they could do just that, provide better benefits for less cost than regular Medicare, or at least equal benefits for less cost. Both the government and beneficiaries win! 😋
Turns out though that Congress was convinced of the wisdom of paying more for MA plans, 14% more in fact. I guess it looked good, all those seniors with greater benefits, nothing like keeping voters happy … even at the expense of the rest of Americans.
These plans should have been on a level playing field on day one and stayed there. If the more efficient thing was valid, so be it. That’s the kind of proof we conservatives would like to see. Obamacare does cut the MA payments over time, unfortunately not for the right reasons, but simply to spend the money elsewhere.
As you can imagine, cutting payments to the insurers means two things; higher premiums and lower benefits. This is something I have written about before when Obanacare was still under discussion. Seniors are going to scream and no doubt blame it on Obamacare as will Republicans. At the same time Democrats don’t want to lose the votes of the AARP crowd.
Republicans should rethink their position. How can they be in favor of costly and unfair government subsidies that undermine the very principle of free market competition?
But of course, neither Republicans nor Democrats will do the right thing or anything except curry favor with senior voters and insurance company PACs with the result being trimming the MA cuts and spending more money unnecessarily.
Whether you are a senior with traditional Medicare or a taxpayer funding all this, you should be outraged. 😡
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