|
|
Doctors Have It Right: Ditch Private Medicare
The Des Moines Register
December 18, 2007
Iowa seniors are being bombarded with advertisements offering private Medicare plans during the annual open-enrollment period that runs through Dec. 31. One mailing we saw touts no monthly premiums or copayments for generic drugs. Another provides reimbursements for gym memberships. A third offers "help choosing the right plan" during a complimentary lunch buffet.
Well, there is no free lunch in health care.
And Medicare Advantage plans - which allow private insurers to take over the management of seniors' care
- are far from free. In fact, they cost taxpayers on average 12 percent more per patient than traditional Medicare.
But the 2003 Congress insisted on expanding the role of the private sector in administering Medicare. As a result, the insurance companies are collecting big bucks and seniors are confused by all their options for coverage. Private plans break up the Medicare buying pool, which should be more than 40 million people strong.
At a recent health-care conference, Marilyn Moon of the American Institutes for Research accurately characterized the federal government's orientation toward private plans when she said, "We welcome them all and overpay them."
Register editorials have repeatedly called for Congress to eliminate subsidies to private insurers.
Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine it would be the private sector itself - doctors and hospitals - that would take the initiative to discourage Americans from enrolling in the private plans.
Fortunately, that is exactly what is happening.
Recently, The Iowa Clinic ran a full-page ad in this newspaper, warning consumers it would not accept Medicare Advantage plans. The Iowa Clinic employs about 110 specialty physicians. Patients visit its offices 400,000 times a year. But it won't accept patients using the private plans it listed in the ad.
That followed a press release from Alegent Health hospitals and clinics reminding Iowans that its hospitals would treat only Medicare patients covered through traditional Medicare, except in emergencies.
Also, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., does not accept most of the private plans.
More health-care providers should follow in their footsteps.
Of course, many Iowans, especially seniors who have chosen these plans, disagree. They like having plans with no premiums and reimbursements for gym membership. They want something for nothing.
The trouble is that all taxpayers pay more, draining money from a program that's already in financial trouble. Money that should be going for health care is instead lining the pockets of insurance companies.
Everyone should know better. Privatizing Medicare is a proven failure. In the 1990s, some Americans were given the option of leaving traditional Medicare and enrolling in private plans. Known as Medicare+Choice, the government subsidized insurance companies to cover seniors. But eventually, insurance companies dropped the plans, leaving millions of Americans without coverage.
That didn't stop some in Congress - including Sen.
Charles Grassley - from pushing to expand private-sector involvement in 2003. Medicare Advantage plans are a boon for the insurance companies now clamoring to sign up people. They are a curse for taxpayers.
These private plans are not necessarily a good deal for seniors, either. To our knowledge, all doctors and hospitals in Iowa accept patients using traditional Medicare. The private plans are another matter. We hope to see more providers rejecting these plans - something Congress should have done long ago.
More Information on US Health Issues
|
|
