RP Listener Forum

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 4:46pm

islander wrote:

That's what the advantage plans are - medicare via private providers. But medicare pays more to the private providers so it winds up costing the taxpayers extra.

From Wiki:

Traditional or "fee-for-service" Medicare has a standard benefit package that covers medically necessary care members can receive from nearly any hospital or doctor in the country. For people who choose to enroll in a Medicare Advantage health plan, Medicare pays the private health plan a fixed amount every month. Members typically also pay a monthly premium in addition to the Medicare Part B premium to cover items not covered by traditional Medicare (Parts A & B), such as prescription drugs, dental care, vision care and gym or health club memberships. In exchange for these extra benefits, enrollees may be limited in the providers they can receive services from without paying extra. Typically, the plans have a "network" of providers that patients can use. Going outside that network may require permission or extra fees.

Yes. We enrolled in a Medicare supplement plan from a private provider that costs us about $12k per year over and above MC parts A and B. I don't remember it covering gym or health club memberships, however. I think that what Kurt is referring to is a plan that, like SSI, is available to those not yet eligible for MC or SS. There have not been any changes that affected our MC or MC supplement.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 4:43pm

islander wrote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403953.html

TUCSON — Patrick Higney, 66, doesn't want to give up the freebies that come with his zero-premium Medicare Advantage plan: free aspirin and free Band-Aids, a free blood pressure machine and a free ear thermometer.

...

"It's a wasteful, inefficient program and always has been," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) said at a recent hearing. At its core, Rockefeller added, Medicare Advantage is "stuffing money into the pockets of private insurers, and it doesn't provide any better benefits to anybody."

Edit: and part D isn't really an advantage plan anyway (although you can access it through one, part D is part of medicare), it's part C that is the advantage plans.

I need not click on your link as I see it is dated 2009/10/14, nearly three years old and from the Washington Times. Written at the time, before the ACA was passed in 2010/3/23, it is irrelevant and not accurate in regards to the final bill passed. It is only an opinion piece, written at that time. It can be nothing more.

Try again.
And Part C is basically toast.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 4:33pm

OlderThanDirt wrote:

There's something wrong with that article, and it may be in the bolded part.

I suppose you can get any kind of coverage you want, as long as you're willing to pay for it.

That's what the advantage plans are - medicare via private providers. But medicare pays more to the private providers so it winds up costing the taxpayers extra.

From Wiki:

Traditional or "fee-for-service" Medicare has a standard benefit package that covers medically necessary care members can receive from nearly any hospital or doctor in the country. For people who choose to enroll in a Medicare Advantage health plan, Medicare pays the private health plan a fixed amount every month. Members typically also pay a monthly premium in addition to the Medicare Part B premium to cover items not covered by traditional Medicare (Parts A & B), such as prescription drugs, dental care, vision care and gym or health club memberships.^<26> In exchange for these extra benefits, enrollees may be limited in the providers they can receive services from without paying extra. Typically, the plans have a "network" of providers that patients can use. Going outside that network may require permission or extra fees.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 4:30pm

islander wrote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403953.html

TUCSON — Patrick Higney, 66, doesn't want to give up the freebies that come with his zero-premium Medicare Advantage plan: free aspirin and free Band-Aids, a free blood pressure machine and a free ear thermometer.

...

"It's a wasteful, inefficient program and always has been," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) said at a recent hearing. At its core, Rockefeller added, Medicare Advantage is "stuffing money into the pockets of private insurers, and it doesn't provide any better benefits to anybody."

There's something wrong with that article, and it may be in the bolded part.

I suppose you can get any kind of coverage you want, as long as you're willing to pay for it.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 4:20pm

kurtster wrote:

You are grossly misinformed about Medicare Advantage plans. Aspirin is not covered for example. Part D is part of the Advantage plans. Aspirin is not covered under Part D. What is this waste, fraud and abuse you refer to as a part of the Medicare Advantage Plans ? Please offer some support for these claims. Medicare Advantage was not reformed it was eliminated, fini, toast. Medicare Advantage a mere perk ? That's pretty callous and cavalier.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403953.html

TUCSON — Patrick Higney, 66, doesn't want to give up the freebies that come with his zero-premium Medicare Advantage plan: free aspirin and free Band-Aids, a free blood pressure machine and a free ear thermometer.

...

"It's a wasteful, inefficient program and always has been," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) said at a recent hearing. At its core, Rockefeller added, Medicare Advantage is "stuffing money into the pockets of private insurers, and it doesn't provide any better benefits to anybody."

Edit: and part D isn't really an advantage plan anyway (although you can access it through one, part D is part of medicare), it's part C that is the advantage plans.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 4:10pm

islander wrote:

okay, I know Obama did this just to kill you and silence the criticism so he would have a shot at re-election, but...

Aren't the advantage plans a huge source of a lot of the waste, fraud & abuse that cause the system to be so expensive in the first place? Things like private plans covering aspirin and then marking it up and charging it back to medicare? So they canceled the plan you were on - this happens to a lot of people. Did they actually cancel your insurance? Or do you just need to pick a different plan? One of the neat things about the ACA is it gives you some protections when seeking new coverage for people like you with existing conditions.

I know the 140 billion or so that came out of reform of medicare advantage was just a perk, and the real reason he did it was to hurt people like you, or may just you, but that savings may wind up helping some others down the road too.

Add and remove snark tags above as appropriate. I honestly can't tell where they belong.

You are grossly misinformed about Medicare Advantage plans. Aspirin is not covered for example. Part D is part of the Advantage plans. Aspirin is not covered under Part D. What is this waste, fraud and abuse you refer to as a part of the Medicare Advantage Plans ? Please offer some support for these claims. Medicare Advantage was not reformed it was eliminated, fini, toast. Medicare Advantage a mere perk ? That's pretty callous and cavalier.

There was at my last known information roughly 14 million senior and diabled Americans enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. While seniors over 65 have other choices, the disabled under 65 do not. The plan was cancelled due to the ACA. It is not being offeed anymore. The only remaining Advantage plans require being on Medicaid and they are HMO's not a PPO like we have now. I'm sure that you know the disadvantages of an HMO versus a PPO. The plan I had allowed me to keep my doctors that I had under private insurance. Now I must find doctors that will accept only Medicare. That list is shrinking rapidly. We can discuss this more if you like and tie in the 'Doctor Fix' should you wish to go into more depth. And if you read my reply to you earlier, there is mention of how doctors will become employees of hospitals and act as 'Gatekeepers'. HMO's function with gatekeepers already, another disadvantage of HMO's. You cannot progress beyond a certain level of care without your present doctor approving. With a PPO, one can see specialists without requiring an order or referal or permission. I know several people personally that have died as a result of not being allowed by their HMO's to higher levels of care by denying access to testing and doctors that could actually find the cancers that they had. By the time they fought their way past the gatekeepers, it was too late. This is our future. The ACA is destroying private practices. It is turning our hospitals into Primary Care Providers. The front door will still be through the ER, another claim that the ACA was going to eliminate, fail. The ACA is turning our hospitals into HMO'. The doctors are no longer in charge. The bean counters and bureacrats assume the role of judge and jury over access to higher levels.

While there are still some affordable Medicare supplemental plans available, they are not available to the disabled. One thing to know as far as the government is concerned, medically, once you reach the age of 65, you are no longer disabled, you are just over 65. That classification magically disappears once you reach that age. Sure you get your car thingy, but other than that, little else. Or you could also say that everyone over 65 is disabled. 6 of one half of another for all intents and purposes.

In order to qualify for Medicaid, you must be in abject poverty. The ACA expands Medicaid, at the expense of the states who must bear the brunt of the expenses. The SCOTUS gave states waivers to opt out of the Medicare expansion under the ACA, effectively neutering it in this regard. States are already opting out because they cannot afford the expansion.

So if you are under 65 and disabled needing intensive medical care, you will soon be forced into poverty and onto Medicaid in order to get the services you need and also bear in mind that there are a fraction of the doctors available for Medicaid as opposed to Medicare. So tell me again how the ACA has fixed our health care system and made it better and more accessable. To say that you have access is one thing, using that access is a totally different thing. Obama has consciously attacked a class of people to bring them down, but at the same time, no one goes up in the process. Its not about rising people upto better things, its about lowering everyone to a predetermined lowest common denominator. Its not about distributing the wealth, its about distributing the suffering and misery to more people, lowering people than than bringing them up.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 3:30pm

islander wrote:

okay, I know Obama did this just to kill you and silence the criticism so he would have a shot at re-election, but...

Aren't the advantage plans a huge source of a lot of the waste, fraud & abuse that cause the system to be so expensive in the first place? Things like private plans covering aspirin and then marking it up and charging it back to medicare? So they canceled the plan you were on - this happens to a lot of people. Did they actually cancel your insurance? Or do you just need to pick a different plan? One of the neat things about the ACA is it gives you some protections when seeking new coverage for people like you with existing conditions.

I know the 140 billion or so that came out of reform of medicare advantage was just a perk, and the real reason he did it was to hurt people like you, or may just you, but that savings may wind up helping some others down the road too.

Add and remove snark tags above as appropriate. I honestly can't tell where they belong.

What's it earmarked for or is it just "savings"?

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 3:14pm

kurtster wrote:

Sorry to threadjack ...

Thank you, Obama for screwing the disabled with your Affordable Care Act. Just as I have been posting here for many months. We just received our Medicare renewal info in the mail today. Our Advantage plans are no longer available as I have posted for many months. Because we are under 65 we are not eligable for Medigap or supplemental plans. The only state that retains these Medicare Advantage plans is the state of Florida, which received waivers from Obama in order to bribe a vote to pass the ACA from the Florida Senator at the time.

Thank you Obama for your big lie about if you like your present plans you can keep your plans, they will not change. You have screwed all the disabled just like you said Paul Ryan would with his Medicare reform plans only you beat him to the punch. You stole the money from Medicare to pay for your ACA Tax that you foisted on the American public. The money that you stole, killed the Medicare Advantage plans that millions of seniors and the disabled counted on to provide affordable options to just plain Medicare.

You don't care about senior and disabled Americans. You just want us to die and go away because we cost too much. You said that is what the Republicans want even though they have yet to act on that, you have. You are guilty of doing what you accuse the Republicans of. Actions mean more than words. Your words mean nothing. Your actions are clear cut proof of your intent.

May you fail at your re-election bid and end end up changing the diapers of the seniors and disabled that you have thrown under the bus for the rest of your natural life and then some, you lying POS. Your Affordable Care Act is not affordable and does not provide the care you promised. Its just another F'ing tax on the poor and middle class. You have made health care worse rather than better in America. The proof is in and before the election.

okay, I know Obama did this just to kill you and silence the criticism so he would have a shot at re-election, but...

Aren't the advantage plans a huge source of a lot of the waste, fraud & abuse that cause the system to be so expensive in the first place? Things like private plans covering aspirin and then marking it up and charging it back to medicare? So they canceled the plan you were on - this happens to a lot of people. Did they actually cancel your insurance? Or do you just need to pick a different plan? One of the neat things about the ACA is it gives you some protections when seeking new coverage for people like you with existing conditions.

I know the 140 billion or so that came out of reform of medicare advantage was just a perk, and the real reason he did it was to hurt people like you, or may just you, but that savings may wind up helping some others down the road too.

Add and remove snark tags above as appropriate. I honestly can't tell where they belong.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 3:00pm

kurtster wrote:

He reads everything.

I hear that he even reads his security briefings. Like he understands them. {#Roflol}

Libya is proof of that.

OMgosh he's God! I thought Nietzsche killed him.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 2:50pm

kurtster wrote:

He reads everything.

I hear that he even reads his security briefings. Like he understands them. {#Roflol}

Libya is proof of that.

You should be so smart {#Rolleyes}

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 2:46pm

Umberdog wrote:

I didn't know Obama reads this forum.

He reads everything.

I hear that he even reads his security briefings. Like he understands them. {#Roflol}

Libya is proof of that.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 2:37pm

kurtster wrote:

Sorry to threadjack ...

Thank you, Obama for screwing the disabled with your Affordable Care Act. Just as I have been posting here for many months. We just received our Medicare renewal info in the mail today. Our Advantage plans are no longer available as I have posted for many months. Because we are under 65 we are not eligable for Medigap or supplemental plans. The only state that retains these Medicare Advantage plans is the state of Florida, which received waivers from Obama in order to bribe a vote to pass the ACA from the Florida Senator at the time.

Thank you Obama for your big lie about if you like your present plans you can keep your plans, they will not change. You have screwed all the disabled just like you said Paul Ryan would with his Medicare reform plans only you beat him to the punch. You stole the money from Medicare to pay for your ACA Tax that you foisted on the American public. The money that you stole, killed the Medicare Advantage plans that millions of seniors and the disabled counted on to provide affordable options to just plain Medicare.

You don't care about senior and disabled Americans. You just want us to die and go away because we cost too much. You said that is what the Republicans want even though they have yet to act on that, you have. You are guilty of doing what you accuse the Republicans of. Actions mean more than words. Your words mean nothing. Your actions are clear cut proof of your intent.

May you fail at your re-election bid and end end up changing the diapers of the seniors and disabled that you have thrown under the bus for the rest of your natural life and then some, you lying POS. Your Affordable Care Act is not affordable and does not provide the care you promised. Its just another F'ing tax on the poor and middle class. You have made health care worse rather than better in America. The proof is in and before the election.

I didn't know Obama reads this forum.

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 2:29pm

kurtster wrote:

Sorry to threadjack ...

Thank you, Obama for screwing the disabled with your Affordable Care Act. Just as I have been posting here for many months. We just received our Medicare renewal info in the mail today. Our Advantage plans are no longer available as I have posted for many months. Because we are under 65 we are not eligable for Medigap or supplemental plans. The only state that retains these Medicare Advantage plans is the state of Florida, which received waivers from Obama in order to bribe a vote to pass the ACA from the Florida Senator at the time.

Thank you Obama for your big lie about if you like your present plans you can keep your plans, they will not change. You have screwed all the disabled just like you said Paul Ryan would with his Medicare reform plans only you beat him to the punch. You stole the money from Medicare to pay for your ACA Tax that you foisted on the American public. The money that you stole, killed the Medicare Advantage plans that millions of seniors and the disabled counted on to provide affordable options to just plain Medicare.

You don't care about senior and disabled Americans. You just want us to die and go away because we cost too much. You said that is what the Republicans want even though they have yet to act on that, you have. You are guilty of doing what you accuse the Republicans of. Actions mean more than words. Your words mean nothing. Your actions are clear cut proof of your intent.

May you fail at your re-election bid and end end up changing the diapers of the seniors and disabled that you have thrown under the bus for the rest of your natural life and then some, you lying POS. Your Affordable Care Act is not affordable and does not provide the care you promised. Its just another F'ing tax on the poor and middle class. You have made health care worse rather than better in America. The proof is in and before the election.

Thanks for sharing.

What's Romney gonna give you?

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 2:29pm

islander wrote:

Did you just call me mango?

what if he did?

Posted: Oct 3, 2012 - 2:25pm

Sorry to threadjack ...

Thank you, Obama for screwing the disabled with your Affordable Care Act. Just as I have been posting here for many months. We just received our Medicare renewal info in the mail today. Our Advantage plans are no longer available as I have posted for many months. Because we are under 65 we are not eligable for Medigap or supplemental plans. The only state that retains these Medicare Advantage plans is the state of Florida, which received waivers from Obama in order to bribe a vote to pass the ACA from the Florida Senator at the time.

Thank you Obama for your big lie about if you like your present plans you can keep your plans, they will not change. You have screwed all the disabled just like you said Paul Ryan would with his Medicare reform plans only you beat him to the punch. You stole the money from Medicare to pay for your ACA Tax that you foisted on the American public. The money that you stole, killed the Medicare Advantage plans that millions of seniors and the disabled counted on to provide affordable options to just plain Medicare.

You don't care about senior and disabled Americans. You just want us to die and go away because we cost too much. You said that is what the Republicans want even though they have yet to act on that, you have. You are guilty of doing what you accuse the Republicans of. Actions mean more than words. Your words mean nothing. Your actions are clear cut proof of your intent.

May you fail at your re-election bid and end end up changing the diapers of the seniors and disabled that you have thrown under the bus for the rest of your natural life and then some, you lying POS. Your Affordable Care Act is not affordable and does not provide the care you promised. Its just another F'ing tax on the poor and middle class. You have made health care worse rather than better in America. The proof is in and before the election.