I
just received a phone call from an 80 year old client who is very upset
and distraught with her United Health Care Medicare Advantage plan.
The plan, called “Medicare
Complete” dropped three of her doctors out of their network in
September, and now her doctors are working with her to help pay for her
medical treatments the remainder of the year. She said her doctors were
all unaware of being dropped and told her other
physicians are being dropped out of networks throughout the country.
Her
doctor said the Advantage plan is turning into an HMO (Health
Maintenance Organization) to reduce costs for the insurance providers.
Fewer doctors’ sign up for HMO’s
which limits medical treatment options for seniors. And most seniors
don’t want an HMO. I have a single payer fee for service Medicare
Traditional Federal plan which I can use anywhere in the country. I
don’t need a permission slip from an insurance company
to tell me which doctors I can use.
This
is an example of what would happen if Congress approves the Health Care
Compact bill signed into law in Kansas by Governor Brownback in April
2014. There is a movement
in Congress and within our legislature in Kansas to privatize Medicare
and change the peace of mind Single Payer fee for service plan
(Traditional Medicare) into an insurance sales market called Medicare
Advantage. The politician’s surely must know the insurance
companies have made billions of dollars in profits from the Advantage
plans.
Those
who want to repeal Obamacare are basically saying let’s give back the
generous tax payer subsidies to the insurance companies so they can
continue to make their
guaranteed profits. President Obama’s Affordable Care Act legislation
reallocated about $156 billion in federal tax payer dollars by stopping
the corporate welfare gravy train, and he is being nailed to the cross
for doing it.
By
the way I am a registered Republican so this is not a political
statement at all. It’s about doing the right thing for the seniors I
represent. Medicare folks have
no voice or no vote and that’s why I am passionate about what I bring
to the table for them as their Medicare coach. I work for them not the
insurance industry.
I
just saw a T.V. clip a few days ago where Mitch McConnell called in to a
Kentucky sports show and said we need to completely strip and repeal
Obamacare because Obama
took $700 billion out of Medicare. (Now someone just sent me a video on
twitter blasting Obama’s 700 billion alleged theft from Medicare which
is a total lie.. and we traced it back to the ruthless and notorious
mis- information group called the Heritage
Foundation.) Obama reallocated $156 billion out of the pockets of the
insurance companies. The next time you hear a politician tell you I will
repeal Obamacare, ask about the $156 billion going back to the
insurance industry.
More
than $282 billion of tax payer subsidies have been given to insurance
companies between the years 1985-2010 unnecessarily simply because some
members of Congress
want to privatize Medicare. But there is no evidence it provides better
care but considerable evidence that during these years tax payers have
been fleeced because the private programs cost more to administer and
provide no savings as well. Enough already.
As
a Medicare Coach I support all of the benefits granted to the Medicare
folks under Obamacare. I repeat. I support all of the Medicare benefits
granted to the people
I represent under Obamacare. Seniors, please, practice this statement
and don’t be afraid to say it out loud and in public. Saying it is your
only voice in the matter and maybe those politicians who say they
represent you might hear it. But if you remain
silent, you have no voice or no vote.
For all the 450,000
Medicare beneficiaries in Kansas, repeal of Obamacare takes away all
those enhanced benefits like closing the donut hole which has already
saved seniors billions of dollars. It’s time
to speak up and tell those politicians who want to repeal the
Affordable Care Act, it is not going to happen, so please shut up-
because talk like that only threatens the enhanced benefits we have
already received, and you are trying to take them away from
us.
WARNING:
If you are on a Medicare Advantage plan, I recommend you move back to
Traditional Medicare fee for service. This is what my 80 year old
client is doing
and I told her I would share her story so others don’t get into the
mess she is in. She was sold a Medicare Advantage product and got a
real sales pitch, and now that the Affordable Care Act reallocated the
billions of subsidies, the insurance providers who
sell Advantage plans are pulling the rug out under their members
because there is no one in Congress stopping them.
If you are thinking
of buying a Medicare Advantage plan in Kansas think again, because
Medicare Advantage is not a fit for a rural state like Kansas. We no
longer recommend anyone buying a Medicare Advantage
plan because what we have predicted is now coming home to roost.
Once the tax payer
gravy train pipeline was shut down with the Affordable Care Act, the
companies are dropping doctors, pharmacies and many of their plans to
guarantee stockholder share values won’t drop and
profits will remain high.
Wait until I tell
you what is happening with the Prescription plan renewals. Only about
13 percent of Medicare members change plans or even look to see if there
is a better plan out there. Insurance companies
are dropping pharmacies (I had a client call yesterday from a client
almost in tears) to tell me her plan dropped her pharmacy. Another
called to say a real expensive drug I was taking is now no longer
available to me. Formularies change each year, and premiums
change. Where there is confusion there is profit.
We have 500 members
who renewed their member fee with us and already my assistant is saving
our members thousands of dollars. She did an annual Part D prescription
review this morning and saved a couple (age
86) more than $1500 dollars.
So if you are on
Medicare have someone review your prescription plan. The Area Agencies
on Aging can help as well as SHICK. We do much of the same for a first
time fee of $295 per person, but we are able
to enroll and change plans for our clients on line and do all the
follow up and then are here when you need us throughout the year. A
renewal member pays $125, and on average we can save them around $400. I
paid a guy $300 last year to rake my leaves.
We can also move
clients out of Medicare Advantage plans which I suspect will be many as
more Advantage members learn about changes in their plans. I hope this
helps all Medicare folks and adult children
who can relate to the situation my 80 year old client is now facing if
it was your mother. It causes unnecessary stress and worry.
Seniors are drowning in Medicare information and screaming for knowledge. That’s where we can help.
Larry Weigel
The MEDICARE Coach™
1011 Poyntz Ave
Manhattan, KS 66502
www.mymedicarecoach.com
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