We already know the complaints about cost are irrelevant. President Obama has already balanced the cost of the bills. Cronies don't like the eventual elimination of Medicare Advantage, a private health insurance company that costs taxpayers more than government Medicare.
...Democrats repeatedly rejected Republican proposals (click title to entry - thank you) on a series of largely party-line votes through a long day that barely made a dent in hundreds of pending amendments to Chairman Max Baucus' proposal.
Baucus and his fellow Democrats rejected Republican efforts to restore cuts in some areas of Medicare, the government-run insurance program for the elderly, and defeated a politically charged Republican measure sparked by the controversy over a letter from insurer Humana Inc. to its customers.
Republicans also demanded more information on the bill's budgetary impact and called for the Democratic-controlled panel to slow its deliberations on the reform plan, which Baucus had hoped to bring to a final vote this week....
Overview
The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (click here) sharply increased payments to private Medicare Advantage plans. As a result, every plan in every county in the nation was paid more in 2005 than its enrollees would have been expected to cost if they had been enrolled in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. The authors calculate that payments to Medicare Advantage plans averaged 12.4 percent more than costs in traditional Medicare during 2005: a total of more than $5.2 billion, or $922 for each of the 5.6 million Medicare enrollees in managed care. This issue brief updates an earlier analysis of Medicare Advantage payments in 2005 previously published by The Commonwealth Fund; the updated estimates in this report are based on final 2005 enrollment figures that were not available at the time the previous estimates were developed, and they include the effect of policy decisions that were not reflected in the previous estimates.
The reason so much of this is going on due to the past administration, is because Bush/Cheney wanted the entitlement programs such as Medicare to cost more than half the General Budget for the USA. If that were the case, there would be a potential for forcing the Legislature to disrupt or destroy the entitlements all together. Cost containment is a bogus reason for delaying the implementation of a new bill. The 'cost' of Medicare is already more than it should cost. $997 per year is a lot of money that will come off the cost of health immediately as people choose the Public Option or return to regular Medicare over the current Medicare Advantage. There is no reason for Medicare Advantage.
Medicare Advantage Costs the Government More Than Traditional Medicare (click here)
Tuesday December 12, 2006
A Commonwealth Fund study shows that Medicare Advantage plans cost the government more money than traditional Medicare. Medicare Advantage plans bundle traditional Part A, Part B, and Part D benefits into one comprehensive benefits package for a single monthly premium. These plans have been gaining popularity since the new Part D benefit was launched. However, the Long Island Newsday reports that the government spends an additional $922 per year for each beneficiary enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan - money which could potentially be better used in different ways to make the Medicare program as a whole more robust.
Medicare Advantage accepts PRIMARILY those eligible for Medicare, but, don't require the insurance as much as the chronically ill.
The profit margin for Medicare Advantage is due to the 'type of client' it administers to within the plan. The government run Medicare is suffering because from a lack of diversity of those covered. Those requiring more insurance are dumped into the government administered Medicare program. The government doesn't have the opportunity of a 'blend' of clients.
The private Medicare Advantage, for profit, plan will never be a complete substitution for the government run Medicare as people will require care more frequently as they age and Medicare Advantage does not carry those clients within their plan. IF Medicare Advantage were to accept all the patients eligible for Medicare regardless of their 'need' for this insurance, its costs would escalate. With escalating costs and no public option, such as Medicare, the people that now receive Medicare would be paying a great deal more as there would be no option to it.
Medicare Advantage: Whose Cost, Whose Benefit? (click here for video)
7/16/2007
Kaiser Family Foundation and Alliance for Health Reform - Washington, D.C.
Write House and Senate elected officials to support the Health Care Reform Bills and the Public Option.
