Why is Obama targeting the medicare advantage?
Obama has some issues with the medicare advantage plan. The program pays insurance companies a hefty premium above traditional Medicare reimbursements for enrolling senior citizens in managed care. But whether the higher payments are worth the cost is a matter of dispute. Obama and many congressional Democrats see Medicare Advantage as a wasteful bonanza averaging about $17 billion a year for the companies, which critics say provide few benefits beyond regular Medicare. And cutting out the extra pay is crucial to financing the health care overhaul under the Democrats’ plans. The companies and their supporters say they earn the extra payments by providing seniors with significant added benefits, including freedom from government red tape. And many Medicare recipients who may pay nothing for the “extras” seem to agree. Almost a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Advantage programs. For the past few years, Medicare Advantage has been a sheltered corner of the national healt
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had no qualms expressing his low opinion of private health insurance plans in Medicare. “Medicare Advantage is gone,” Reid said last week during an interview with The Hill. He didn’t mean that literally, his press office later clarified. But Reid, like his fellow congressional Democrats and President-elect Obama, wants to scale back the program through which HMOs and other health plans provide benefits to more than 10 million people, or almost one-fourth of the 45 million people on Medicare. Likewise, Obama singled out Medicare Advantage as an example of “programs that don’t work” during an appearance on ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday. By confronting the health insurance industry over Medicare Advantage, Obama and his congressional Democratic allies have already opened one front in the battle for comprehensive health reform with the sector mostly responsible for crushing President Clinton’s effort to achieve the same goal. Democrats’ vow to
Who’s right? As a former senior adviser, I can tell you who: the president. What’s more, according to a White House fact sheet titled “Paying for Health Care Reform,” Mr. Axelrod was misleading his readers. It notes the administration would cut $622 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, with a big chunk coming from Medicare Advantage, to pay for overhauling health care. Mr. Obama heralded these cuts as “common sense” in his June 13 radio address. Sources: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574374584177632694.html?
