Remember "if you like your coverage, you can keep it?"
Well, guess what.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLmaCWG1xKU
The amazing thing about that video is noT what she says, but what she
leaves out - Advantage is a premium ADDITIONAL coverage paid for in
addition to Parts A and B. In short, you pay for Advantage - it's not
part of the Medicare premiums. So, can you keep it? No - under the
new rules, you may not.
Thanks Obama.
Same hearing - a little more interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebMSpLaXmls
Currently, between 20%-25% of all Medicare enrollees buy Medicare
Advantage plans, which means that these changes impact a lot of people
not to mention that reduced coverage would decrease enrollment.
There is another set of spending cuts in store for A and B as well:
proposed $500 billion in overall cuts to Medicare (including
Advantage), which leaves roughly $390 billion for A & B over ten
years. That’s about 8% of a program that supposedly runs more
efficiently than insurers because it doesn’t have to pay industry
profit margins which average 3.3%.
If Medicare is truly that efficient and effective, then the 8% cuts
will have to result from care rationing or benefit reductions,
especially when Obama proposes expanding Medicare and Medicaid to get
universal coverage.
So - bottom line?
Obama lied.