…insurers. 2. Myth: Expanding private plans in Medicare will reduce Medicare’s costs. Fact: Private Medicare Advantage plans have raised Medicare costs. Private insurers profit by selectively enrolling the healthy and…
New poll on single payer and a Medicare buy-in
…concepts to the traditional Medicare program. They can conveniently ignore the fact that the current market experiment with private Medicare Advantage plans has been unsuccessful in providing comparable benefits at…
Study: Medicare Has Overpaid Private Insurers $283B Since 1985
…insurers, also known as Medicare Advantage plans, and they identified overpayments totaling $282.6 billion since 1985. Medicare Advantage plans, also known as Medicare Part C and formerly known as Medicare…
Buying medical care is not like buying a car
…billion, or $2,526 per Medicare Advantage enrollee. … It’s clear that having Medicare Advantage programs compete with Medicare doesn’t save us money. In fact the opposite is the case,” says…
UnitedHealth takes over risk adjustment function from government
Conflict-of-interest concerns raised as Obama races to implement health reform
…insiders that UnitedHealth Group may be gaining an advantage for its subsidiary, UnitedHealthcare. It is difficult to know QSSI’s precise role because its contract is not publicly available and the…
Setting the record straight on Medicareās overhead costs
…the privatized portion of Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage, is included, according to a study in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. The…
For-profit insurers again flex lobbying muscle
By Sandra Fox Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 7, 2013 Thanks to Steve Twedt and the Post-Gazette for the front-page coverage of the Medicare Advantage reversal by the Centers for Medicare and…
I Am A Republican ā¦ Can We Talk About A Single Payer System?
…think we should talk about having a single payer national health care plan. The reason is quite simple. In my view, we already have one; we just don’t take advantage…
A noted Republican physician executive talks about single payer
I Am A Republicanā¦ Can We Talk About A Single Payer System?
…we should talk about having a single payer national health care plan. The reason is quite simple. In my view, we already have one; we just don’t take advantage of…
Backgrounder on the 2015 SGR ‘doc fix’
…only way to avoid the deductible in the future will be to join a private Medicare Advantage plan. 3. Raise Medicare’s costs by driving more patients into private Medicare Advantage…
Mr. Trump, If You Love Medicare, Improve It and Expand It to All
Can the U.S. afford to expand Medicare to all? The real question is, can we afford not to?
…Advantage plans, either. They just want one, simple plan that gives them full choice of hospitals and doctors. Commercially administered Medicare Advantage plans don’t offer a full range of choices….
More Hispanic children covered, but do we need a public option?
…Medicare Advantage, or Medicaid. So would people have to buy two plans – the Medicare buy-in plus some sort of Medigap plan? Too expensive and administratively wasteful. If the buy-in…