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Dear Dana,
You may have noticed Medicare in the headlines again. In
particular, the Medicare Advantage program has been grabbing
attention. And it's for all the wrong reasons. Sadly, the heavy
financial and personal costs of this attempt to privatize
Medicare are becoming clear.
Whose Advantage?
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are private plans that contract
with the government to provide beneficiaries with their Medicare
benefits. As a result of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act,
private MA plans are paid an average of 12 percent more per
member compared to the cost to care for that person in
traditional Medicare. That adds up to $54 billion in taxpayer
subsidies over the next 5 years, according to the Congressional
Budget Office.
As the summer heats up, insurance companies will spend millions
to keep that money for their profits. We will need your help to
defeat them when the time comes.
Independent experts and health care advocates agree that
Congress should level payments between MA and traditional
Medicare (check out our letter
[http://ga3.org/ct/bdSxI371pXGZ/] to Members of Congress).
Beneficiaries are hurting too. Insurance commissioners in 39
states have received complaints about MA marketing practices,
like forging seniors' signatures, targeting people with limited
English capacity, or selling plans door-to-door. As a result,
vulnerable beneficiaries lose access to their doctors and get
stuck with large medical bills.
Click here [http://ga3.org/ct/gpSxI371pXGD/] to send this
email to your colleagues, friends, and family.
Minorities and Medicare Advantage
In an effort to protect the profits they receive from government
overpayments, the insurance industry claims that minorities and
low-income seniors are likely to be disproportionately affected
if Congress levels the playing field for private plans and
starts paying them at the same rate as traditional Medicare.
The truth is, minorities in Medicare are several times more
likely to receive coverage through traditional Medicare than
through private Medicare Advantage plans. And because there's no
government oversight for these private plans, there's no way to
know if seniors are actually benefiting.
Recently, the TriCaucus (Congressional Black Caucus,
Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian
Pacific American Caucus) held a briefing on MA to explore its
role in communities of color. Ron Pollack, Families USA
Executive Director, gave a presentation that demonstrates how
many seniors from racial and ethnic minority communities
actually rely on MA plans.
The presentation also shows how windfall payments to private
Medicare plans send billions of dollars to private insurers that
could otherwise be used to fund health care programs that
directly serve low-income and minority populations.
Click here [http://ga3.org/ct/b1SxI371pXGK/] to view the Power
Point presentation of Ron's briefing to the Congressional
TriCaucus.
Click here [http://ga3.org/ct/gpSxI371pXGD/] to send this
message to your colleagues, friends, and family so they can help
defeat the insurance lobby's effort to preserve profits at the
expense of ordinary Americans.
Thank you for everything you do.
Jeff Gordon
Field Director
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