Between now and Dec. 7, when the current Medicare enrollment period ends, insurance agents will be trolling for customers hoping to snag unsuspecting seniors for their Medicare Advantage Plans. Medicare Advantage was created in 2003 by the George W. Bush administration as a step toward privatizing Medicare. Thus far, some 13 million seniors have been enrolled in the private plans.
The lure: more money. Medicare Advantage plans have been paid as much as 14 percent more per enrollee by Medicare, or about $1,200 per person per year, compared with what traditional Medicare pays for its beneficiaries. Some of the differential goes for perks like gym memberships, but also for higher profits for the insurance companies participating in Medicare Advantage.
The differential is being eliminated by the Obama Administration. And it’s about time. As David Lipschutz, a lawyer for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, has said, “These cuts are a matter of equity. Those 75 per cent of members in traditional Medicare should not be subsidizing the care of those 25 per cent of beneficiaries who are in MA plans.”
But don’t expect those who profit from the differential to go quietly. I listened the other evening to what seniors can expect from a salesman for a Medicare Advantage plan. To hear him tell it, Medicare Advantage is the only option available.
It is not. But the TV ads and speakers making the rounds of retirement homes would have you believe otherwise.
So hold on to your wallets and remember that traditional Medicare is a good deal seniors fought hard to obtain and that should not be jettisoned readily.
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