Medicare and Medicare Advantage
Dear Terry, I’m not even 65 yet, but I’m getting very scared about the cost and quality of Medicare options. Our government pays private insurance companies a lot of money up front to care for Medicare Advantage enrollees. But to make a profit, it seems that MA insurance companies associate themselves with large medical firms and often result in limited time with doctors at appointments, and necessary care being denied/withheld. It seems that doctors that accept “traditional” Medicare are struggling to get sufficient income from Medicare, and may be pushed out of business. I’m afraid this will reduce availability of doctors that accept traditional Medicare, leaving all the private MA companies in charge of our health!! I’d like to write to my representatives in government about this. I’ve seen a few newspaper articles about studies that raise similar concerns. Do you have suggestions for how to present this concern in correspondence to our government officials, and/or any particular articles/studies that would support that this needs to be addressed? Thanks!!
Terry Says
I’ve written about this issue in the past and will do so again as Medicare Open Enrollment season looms. Advantage programs are very restrictive and limit your care to a network of physicians and hospitals.
One answer is using traditional Medicare paying for attention from a physician, through concierge services. It’s expensive, though. But many physicians are joining this trend.
I agree that we are moving in the wrong direction.
