Philip Rucker takes a good, hard look at the scam that is Medicare Advantage. Essentially, it works like this: Congress allowed private HMOs to compete for Medicare patients under the rationale that they could offer better service at lower cost than the government. They couldn't. So Republicans in Congress began boosting their payments, to the point that Medicare Advantage gets paid 114 percent what Medicare gets paid to care for a patient. That leads to some fun perks, like free gym memberships (click here) and complimentary aspirin and band-aids, which in turn leads seniors to defend the program because they like their perks. But it also means a lot of unnecessary expense for taxpayers....
The Affordable Care Act removes monies paid to Medicare Advantage. It is a private health care coverage that is simply too expensive for the country. Those monies will not be leaving the Medicare Program, it will be used more wisely to reduce the cost of care and support the longevity of the Medicare Program.
If Seniors are proven to benefit from the "The Silver Sneakers" idea, of which most don't use, legislators can encourage such a program through an incentive through Medicare. The Private Insurance industry is not the place for Seniors. The programs like Medicare Advantage is one step closer to the slippery slope of Ryan Medicare.
The $500 million leaving the Medicare Advantage Program will be used by the federal government to care for seniors. It is not going anywhere. Medicare Advantage has proven the private insurance industry cannot do it better, so they resorted to bribery of the consumer.
The Federal Income Tax System has to be reformed before the nation should even look at the entitlements for any changes.
