Rick Campbell made no bones about it. He was poised to enroll in Medicare Advantage (Part C) until he learned that the lower to no cost came at a price that could cost him his life.
Health insurance corporations are investing millions in selling Medicare Advantage (MA) to Americans of Medicare age. That is your dollar spent indirectly to promote health insurance that taxpayers pay for, while corporate executives and shareholders skim a large percentage of your tax dollars as profits. The advertising has been very successful as by next year, over 50% of Medicare-eligible Americans will succumb to the high-pressure sales tactics as they opt-in to a detrimental form of Medicare.
This article’s intent is not to scold those who succumbed to the MA salesforce from the various insurance companies. They’ve invested much to get you. It is hard to resist free health club membership, a few free lunches, and eye, teeth, and hearing coverage. Many poor or financially strapped Medicare recipients could not get all that coverage for free with traditional Medicare. Senator Bernie Sanders and other Progressives have been fighting to include dental, hearing, and vision coverage in traditional Medicare. Still, too many politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike are on the take and block the legislation.
Health insurance lobbyists pay off politicians to cripple traditional Medicare to give Medicare Advantage the facade of better coverage. It costs the taxpayers much more than it would if it was all managed by traditional Medicare instead of the privatized Medicare Advantage. Private insurance must pay marketing costs, duplicate database and administrative expenses, exorbitant executive salaries, and shareholder dividends. Traditional Medicare has none of those costs. It is mathematically impossible for MA to be more efficient or less expensive than Traditional Medicare. And those additional costs don’t even consider the outright fraud that plagues the private corporations that swindle taxpayers.
Recently, I wrote the article “ Get Medicare! No to Medicare Advantage. It’s perfume-covered doo-doo that’ll bankrupt or kill you,” which presents the case against Medicare Advantage. It includes experts who understand that it is a fraud on the American Taxpayer and, at times, the patients it claims to serve. Please read it. It is well worth it with two start interviews included.
Thom Hartmann, the host of the Thom Hartmann Show, wrote one of the definitive books on our healthcare system. The book, “The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich” is a must-read.
I want to be very clear. The continued growth of Medicare Advantage will further destroy our healthcare system. If you think our privatized health insurance is expensive, exploitative, terrible, and inefficient, Medicare Advantage will worsen it. I leave the article “ ‘Straight Up Fraud’: Data Confirms Private Insurers Use Medicare Advantage to Steal Billions “ with you from Common Dreams.
Amost every major player in the industry has been accused of fraud by a whistleblower or the U.S. government. In addition, the vast majority are engaged in rampant upcoding or exaggerating patients’ illnesses in order to reap more money from taxpayers-something they do while refusing to provide necessary care for tens of thousands each year.
Please do your due diligence.
