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phantom power

(25,966 posts)
Wed Aug 22, 2012, 06:23 PM Aug 2012

Medicare Advantage is a 15-year failed experiment in privatization.

Jackie Calmes has a very good piece about those Medicare “cuts” Romney promises to repeal. As she emphasizes, all of these involve reductions in payments to insurance companies and health providers, rather than reductions in patient benefits. So what are we talking about?

Sarah Kliff had a good summary. Most of the proposed savings come from reducing overpayments to Medicare Advantage and reducing reimbursement rates to hospitals.

What should you know about these changes?

Medicare Advantage is a 15-year failed experiment in privatization. Running Medicare through private insurance companies was supposed to save money through the magic of the marketplace; in reality, private insurers, with their extra overhead, have never been able to compete on a level playing field with conventional Medicare. But Congress refused to take no for an answer, and kept the program alive by paying the insurers substantially more than the costs per patient of regular Medicare. All the ACA does is end this overpayment.

As for the cuts in hospital reimbursement, the key thing to know is that the hospital industry itself negotiated those cuts.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/understanding-medicare-cuts/

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Medicare Advantage is a 15-year failed experiment in privatization. (Original Post) phantom power Aug 2012 OP
Fact Old Codger Aug 2012 #1
designed to fail to make Medicare as a whole look bad to the public fascisthunter Aug 2012 #2
My Advantage account is an exception eridani Aug 2012 #3
Medicare Advantage receives a 14% subsidy from the US Treasury stufl Aug 2012 #4
The same problems will exist with the ACA, it is basicaly the same approach, perhaps in 15 years we Dragonfli Aug 2012 #5
 

Old Codger

(4,205 posts)
1. Fact
Wed Aug 22, 2012, 08:08 PM
Aug 2012

When I had an advantage account it cost me more out of pocket than without it, no advantage at all...

eridani

(51,907 posts)
3. My Advantage account is an exception
Wed Aug 22, 2012, 08:31 PM
Aug 2012

It is with a consumer-owned non-profit HMO. (Basically regular Medicare bennies plus dental.) Since the HMO isn't overcharging me, they won't be docked.

stufl

(96 posts)
4. Medicare Advantage receives a 14% subsidy from the US Treasury
Wed Aug 22, 2012, 08:39 PM
Aug 2012

to compensate for it's lack of competitiveness with Medicare. The ACA removes that subsidy and, among other things, reduces the cost for prescription drugs in the donut hole by 50%. I assisted seniors in selecting Medicare Part D providers and those who needed help in the donut hole will SCREAM if and when it's taken away.

Not only is Romney lying, he is gonna' be cursed by those who voted for him for taking this valuable benefit. He really does not understand that which he says.

Dragonfli

(10,622 posts)
5. The same problems will exist with the ACA, it is basicaly the same approach, perhaps in 15 years we
Wed Aug 22, 2012, 08:56 PM
Aug 2012

will admit it.

Or perhaps not, I think it has more to do with contributions from said vultures than it has to do with common sense or reality.

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