Obama Targets Medicare Advantage, Again

Townhall.com ^ | February 9, 2015 | Neil McCabe

[grania]

I'm a senior with Medicare Part A and disagree with most of my peers. Medicare Part A should be the only part there is. It's the insurance we paid into the system for. It was designed so seniors would not be impoverished by a hospital visit.

Medicare Part B and Part D, the pharmaceutical program, should not be part of the federal program. They should be private sector insurance.

It was GWB who force-fed us Medicare Part D. What's happened? Increased pharmaceutical expenses, copays many recipients can hardly afford, over-prescribing of drugs, and many seniors walking around in a drug-induced zombie state.

[TAP ONLINE]

Medicare advantage is not Part D. Part D is only for drugs. Advantage is hospitals, doctors, and can include drugs.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

The rub comes when a company is deciding to invest $50-$75 or $100 million in a new drug.

Those numbers are light by a factor of ten.

[Mouton]

I agree with your point and I am on medicare.

[oh8eleven]

Medicare Part A should be the only part there is.
As long as illegal aliens and the rest of the Takers of Society get free healthcare, Medicare recipients shouldn't be paying a dime.
Most of us have paid in for 40+ years and still get charged every month.

[grania]

Most of us still get charges every month

You get charged on Part B and Part D....Part A is free. What I'm saying is the parts you're charged for are not part of the original Medicare program and should be totally private sector. Having parts B and/or D is your choice; it's not what you paid for all those years.

[Kackikat]

Most people can buy drugs cheaper than you can pay for the Part D prescription drug charges, unless they are extremely ill and taking horribly expensive drugs. The average charge for the Part D plan is about $250-400 per quarter, over $1000 per year.

With Walmart’s $4 drugs, and the coupons you can get online...it’s stupid to pay for Part D unless you take drugs without use of coupons or aren’t covered by $4 list of most drug store lists.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

What???

You can’t bring a new drug to market for less than $1 billion. It typically costs over $2 billion. Government price-fixing is why companies are unloading their drug operations.

[oh8eleven]

With Walmart’s $4 drugs, and the coupons you can get online...it’s stupid to pay for Part D
Stupid? What happens when in February or March - all of a sudden - you need very expensive drugs that aren't on Walmart's list or covered by coupons ... and you can't sign up for Part D coverage until the end of the year?

[oh8eleven]

What I'm saying is the parts you're charged for are not part of the original Medicare program ...
And what I'm saying is - I don't give a damn. The Takers of Society have done nothing most of their lives (including not even living in this country), and yet they get treated like they deserve everything for free.
As Øbama keeps defunding the Medicare Advantage program, where do you think that money is going? Yeah, ØbamaCare, Medicaid and any other program set up to help the "poooooooor."

[ChildOfThe60s]

Irony alert. Big Pharma backed OC expecting their payoff. Now they will get it. Right up the rear end.

If you give the devil a ride he’s gonna end up driving.

[thirst4truth]

All by design. How else are they going to “death panel” the baby boomers? You wait, the boomers will be the scorge of this nation, using far more government resources than we can afford, $100,000 on a hip transplant on a 90 year old?

[TomGuy]

This statement is somewhat confusing:

The program is a voluntary add-on to a senior's Medicare coverage, where seniors pay a premium and deductibles for one of the more than 1,500 private sector drug insurance plans.

Is "The program" referring to Part D? If so, it is not voluntary. It is mandatory. Anyone not signing up for an approved drug plan is fined. The fine increases each year of non-compliance. When one does enrol in a prescription drug plan later, the cumulative fine is assessed and added monthly to the cost of the drug plan.

If the statement means that drug plans are voluntary with some Medicare Advantage plans, that is technically true, but not signing up for a drug plan -- whether part of an approved Medicare plan or a separate standalone plan -- still result in an accumulating fine.

[oh8eleven]

the boomers will be the scorge of this nation, using far more government resources than we can afford
Say, don't people like you belong over on DU?
But not to worry, these boomers won't cost you another penny, forever ...

[Kackikat]

I get my husbands very expensive drugs by using coupons, when Walmart $4 list doesn’t supply them. Now I am not talking about cancer drugs or very expensive inhalers etc.

HoWever the AVERAGE (NOT EVERYONE) person does not use over $1000 of drugs yearly.

[nascarnation]

I agree with your basic premise.

But FReepers should also realize you pay a penalty if you sign up for part D AFTER your initial eligibility date. And the penalty increases for each month of non-coverage.

[Kackikat]

You can get a drug discount card from many sources for free and there is no penalty, that is what I did for myself.

[nascarnation]

It’s a financial judgement call. Having been in cancer treatment for several years, for me Part D was a no-brainer.

[bert]

Obama has a death wish