Wheres Rural America in Medicare Advantage?
By Tim Murphy and Bill Bishop – The Daily Yonder “Medicare Advantage” plans have been touted as a way for elderly rural residents to have a choice in health care plans paid for by Medicare dollars. But few rural Medicare recipients are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans — and those who have joined are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans with the highest costs and the fewest benefits. Congress opened the Medicare program to private insurers and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) years ago in the hopes that competition would create more choice for recipients. This was the beginning of today’s Medicare Advantage system. The hope in Congress was that private companies would have an incentive to innovate, to find better and cheaper ways to provide Medicare recipients with health care. Medicare Advantage plans took off more quickly in cities than in rural communities. By early this year, 27 percent of all Medicare recipients living in urban counties were part of a Medicare Advantage
