Seniors worry about Medicare Advantage cuts

[babsbunny]

Seniors worry about Medicare Advantage cuts

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091228/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_overhaul_medicare_advantage

By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer Matt Sedensky, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 28, 3:10 am ET

MIAMI – Insurers constantly caution seniors that their Medicare Advantage perks such as hearing aids, dental payments and even gym memberships will fizzle if Democrats get their way and cut government subsidies for them.

But tens of billions of Medicare dollars funneled through insurers also pay for extras that never reach beneficiaries: multimillion-dollar salaries, executive retreats in Hawaii, Scotland and Cancun, and massive expenditures on marketing to lure more customers to the privately administered Advantage plans that serve as an alternative to government-provided Medicare.

[theoldman]

1. As a senior on Medicare Advantage I can tell you that most of

these benefits are not there to begin with. It only pays dental if you take out a special dental policy that is more expensive than normal dental expenses.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. This is a serious concern, and a sign that when we get there,

Medicare will be gone.

[virgogal]

3. Who do you mean by "we"?

[DURHAM D]

6. This has nothing to do with basic medicare - just a bad program called medicare advantage.

[MrsCorleone]

8. Huh? Medicare ADVANTAGE is a program designed to siphon

our federal dollars to pad the bottom lines of HMOs, taking funds away from & weakening traditional Medicare.

Nikki, does you "serious concern" lie with the insurers inability to continue to bilk the system? Just curious.

[Thickasabrick]

9. I think Medicare Advantage was Shrub's way of trying to privatize

Medicare - it actually hurts Medicare.

[Nikki Stone1]

11. That's right.

And there has been talk in financial circles for years about getting Medicare off the books completely. I guess not enough of the budget is going to bombs. At any rate, I fully expect Medicare in general (all parts) to be transferred to this new private insurance "infrastructure" by 2020.

[Way2go]

4. Why, those sweet democrats won't let that happen, WILL they?

Okay, I confess. I DID vote for change.

[katmondoo]

5. Medicare Advantage is an insurence policy like an HMO

They take from Medicare and charge extra. They are responsible for the huge expenditures in Medicare. Just use your Medicare Card and do not turn it over to an HMO or to Medicare Advantage. It is NOT necessary to have Medicare Advantage, there is no advantage they are just using and charging the Medicare system more money. In the long run you pay more for Medicare Advantage, they like all insurence companies will get their money one way or another, they are not in business to lose money.
In the end you are paying them extra to manage your Medicare. Manage it yourself.

[DURHAM D]

7. AMEN. nt

[Greyhound]

10. As well they should. This corporate welfare program is just one of the dozens

of "reforms" that siphon billions away from the health care we pay for and into the pockets of the parasite class.

"...the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it . . . they’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it..."