Archived Messages From the President
May 1st, 2015
If you’re eligible for Medicare you are eligible for Medicare Advantage (MA) a program that lets you sign on with a private insurance carrier that then gets paid by Medicare to take care of you. It’s popular, over 16 million or about a third of Medicare eligible seniors chose this option. MA is a win-win for enrollees and insurers because it moves away from the fee-for-service model and toward a preventative care form of healthcare. It is a public/private partnership that has worked for the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and is working for MA.
As unlikely as this seems Washington has begun cutting, and wants to continue cutting, payments to the private insurance providers for MA. They want to cut a program that:
Puts a premium on prevention – one of the goals of the President’s Affordable Care Act (ACA – sometimes called Obamacare) Pays a bonus to efficient healthcare providers – one of the goals of the ACA Let’s you choose your insurance company – one of the goals of the ACA. Is popular with a large number of people – not true of the ACA.
Why would Washington want to cut a program that continues to be successful – because it will free up money that can be used to pay for other Washington priorities. MA’s success makes it a prime source of revenue for other programs. That just isn’t right, it just doesn’t make sense. These cuts have the same effect as raising taxes on a particular industry – the cost is passed on to the consumer, in this case either the premiums go up or the benefits go down.
RetireSafe thinks these cuts need to be stopped; we should be rewarding success not punishing it. We’re asking you to get involved, call your Representative and Senators (you can get their number by clicking the button below) and tell them to tell the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to quit cutting MA. It’s a choice that matters to older Americans.