‘Deny, deny, deny’: By rejecting claims, Medicare Advantage plans threaten rural hospitals and patients, CEOs say
Medicare Advantage plans “are taking over Medicare and they are taking advantage of elderly patients,” said the CEO of one Mississippi facility.
Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/ATSKdGD73TOypNuzlgYlJig
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Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
As I pointed out in one of blog posts, I have little love for Medicare Advantage programs. And it seems others are also discovering they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. They paint a pretty (money-saving) picture, but tend to include several “conditions.” At their core, their primary goal is just like any other business.
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Hi Nan. Yes you are correct. The reason I keep posting these is several years ago Ron got frustrated with our medicaid part D company and the co-pays. He kept looking at the benefits and lower costs for the Medicare Advantage Plans / HMO, and he felt we could get more for our money with doing that. But he had only been on medicare since 2021 and I have been on it most of my life. So it was only one year he had been on it. I knew the lies and the horror stories. I also know Ron. When he works up a head of steam on something directly attacking that will only harden him to that. The solution was to just keep sending him the horror stories with no comments. Some time later, I guess when the next year came to change plans I was worried the fight I would have. I was delighted to hear him say “What ever we do we have to stay with Medicare itself and stay away from those advantage plans, those are a complete rip off”. What a relief.
But then I got thinking, how many newly Medicare people get sucked into that scam, because that is what it clearly is, a scam. The idea that private companies that are for profit can do for the public what the government can do without the need for profit and overhead is also a scam. It makes no sense but it is the capitalist republican dream, make everything private and charge a fee for what the government did for free as your right because you are a person living here.
It is stupid, but smart people fall for it. Look our fellow community member Keith, who still pushes the long discredited Simpson – Bowles commission report. Anyone that looks it up now will see that the modern view including a great take down of it by Robert Reich. But even after I pointed this out to him, I see he still made a post pushing it just recently. Some people just won’t accept new information from what they are comfortable with.
Ron had full insurance that covered everything and had a low co-pay. The first two years of his forced retirement he couldn’t accept he did not have that anymore. But he had to understand that times change, facts changed. He was not prepared for that change and he did not like it, and fought against it. But he had to accept it. Until the public understands that, we won’t have the change we need to a more Nordic / Scandinavian model of government that looks after the people first. Notice that those governments still exist and still have wealthy people still live in them, they still have businesses and companies. They are just not allowed to rule over the people and treat them like slaves. The people have great benefits that would shock the people in the US if they knew of them. But the republican propaganda pushed at the wishes of the wealthy class keeps a lot of people ignorant. Hugs. Scottie
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The idea that private companies that are for profit can do for the public what the government can do without the need for profit and overhead is also a scam.
YES!!
However, based on comments related to my posting on this topic, several folks had a type of Medicare Advantage through their employment or through their spouse’s employment, so when they retired, they just kept what they had.
It pretty much goes without saying that some people simply don’t look at their monthly expenses as close as some of us do.
Yes, it would most definitely be nice if the U.S. wasn’t so profit-oriented.
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Lots of people get sucked into those. Some of them are unfortunate in that when they realize and want to go back, it’s more difficult due to passage of time and health situations and such. The interesting thing is, a lot of “freedom loving” Republicans-both electeds and hospital owners-who think government should not provide health insurance at all, use those rural hospitals not getting paid by Advantage stories to blame actual Medicare. They get to have it coming and going, thanks to GW’s and Gingrich’s congress’s work on Medicare.
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Hello Ali. I know the politicians and the well off don’t care, but the majority of the people in this country are poor. What are they to do for needed healthcare? It was just by the sheer luck that we were able to get Ron’s brother in a nursing home and he still has to share a room. He couldn’t live on his own and only had a small social security check. What was he to do, rot to death in the street? What are all of us to do when we can not live on our own and have no family to burden ourselves with? I hate what this country has become. I just read and posted a story about Manchin siding with the republicans to kill a pro-labor rule. Why because as I keep posting he is a wealthy business owner who refuses to pay his workers more than $11.75 per hour. His top workers. That is why he killed the 15 dollar minimum wage bills. They want to reap all the rewards of the country and leave workers with hardly enough to live. For them the best workers are so desperate they will work for any low wage in any conditions without complaint. I am tired of the daily struggle to survive and it will only get worse for the people in this country if the republicans have their way. Hugs. Scottie
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