Under a new Trump Administration, Medicare will be privatized, with “Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option” for seniors.
This despite the myriad and well-documented problems with Medicare Advantage –
- prior authorization hassles delaying much-needed care,
- limited access to physicians and hospitals,
- physicians and hospitals dropping out of Medicare Advantage plans,
- provider directories that are flat out wrong,
- insurance companies determining what care you need.
from Commonwealth Fund
From a Medicare Advantage member:
“I have very little control over my actual medical care,” he says, adding that he now advises friends not to sign up for the private plans. “I think that people are not understanding what Medicare Advantage is all about.”
What’s worse is the member – Richard Timmins – may well not be able to switch back to regular Medicare with a supplemental policy (Medigap) that includes most healthcare providers and covers deductibles and other expenses.
Only four states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New York — prohibit insurers from denying a Medigap policy if the enrollee has preexisting conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.
Traditional Medicare – managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – allows access to pretty much any physician, therapist, hospital or facility.
What does this mean for you?
Handing Medicare over to private insurers limits choice, access, and patient control over their healthcare.
And yet, astonishingly, so many advisors continue to recommend them, and not one – not a single one of those who recommended MA – told me that the choice of a MA plan would limit my options in the future, because of the pre-existing conditions problem. Fortunately, I got good advice to go with traditional Medicare plus a Medigap policy. Have I had trouble? Sure, occasionally, but mostly from the Medicare D program, which is run by a private insurer. And now we have a plan to privatize care even further, despite the fact that most of the problems with health care in this country are driven by the fact that the motive is profit rather than health care. What a completely terrible idea.
Les – like you I enrolled in traditional healthcare…and I am on the board of a not-for-profit insurer that had offered MA plans.
Reality is Medicare Advantage is very costly for taxpayers and as you note, has many restrictions including medical underwriting if you want to switch back to traditional Medicare.
be well – Joe