In an editorial in the Boston Herald published online today, the newspaper's staff said, "The notion that if you like your health plan you can keep it under Obamacare has already been proven a lie. Just ask the 200,000 Massachusetts residents enrolled in Medicare Advantage who will be forced to switch, with the elimination of that popular program."
This statement is not correct - Medicare Advantage plans are not being eliminated!
Changes to Medicare Advantage
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
- Medicare pays Medicare Advantage insurance companies over $1,000 more per person on average than Original Medicare. These additional payments are paid for in part by increased premiums by all Medicare beneficiaries--including the 77% of seniors not enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan.
- The Affordable Care Act levels the playing field by gradually eliminating Medicare Advantage overpayments to insurance companies.
- If you are in a Medicare Advantage plan, you will still receive guaranteed Medicare benefits.
- Beginning in 2014, the new law protects Medicare Advantage members by taking strong steps to ensure that at least 85% of every dollar these plans receive is spent on health care, rather than administrative costs and insurance company profits.
From a Massachusetts Resident
I am a resident of Massachusetts and I am currently enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan offered by Harvard Pilgrim, a not-for-profit health plan. This plan continues to offer me my guaranteed Medicare benefits as well as convenience and some additional benefits. It also is less costly than regular Medicare + a Part D plan + a Medicare supplemental plan. In fact, my wife goes on Medicare on October 1 and has also joined the same Advantage plan.
I would suggest that the Boston Herald editor make sure that his staff reads and understand the law!
What do you think? Please leave a comment below or in the Health Insurance Forum.
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Excellent explanation on the changes to the Medicare advantage plans.
For many people the reduction in “overpayments” to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will essentially mean the end of the Medicare Advantage program for them. People that have low incomes won’t be able to pay additional premiums for the range of services that were offered by some Medicare Advantage plans for as little as $0 per month in addition to their Part B premium. I expect to see no or almost no plans that have the wide range of benefits offered by Medicare Advantage plans for services not covered by Original Medicare at that price point in the future.
Instead of taking a slash and burn approach to dealing with MA plans care should have been taken first to provide basic services for every person like annual exams, vision, dental, and an out-of-pocket limit, things that are not covered by Original Medicare but were a standard part of many MA plans up until 2010. One way to do that would have been to retain some of the high value plans and charge more for people that could afford to pay more. Instead basic services were de facto eliminated by CMS and Congress in an attempt to control the hemorrhaging of Medicare by blaming it on the insurance industry even though Medicare’s own statistics about where our health care dollar is spent spell out pretty clearly that rising health care costs have little if anything to do with the cost of the private public partnerships that Medicare relies on to carry out it’s functions.