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Ran across this video on Advantage Plans the other day on C-Span. Haven't watched it in its entirety yet, but plan to. First 10 minutes or so appeared very interesting. Various health care experts on the future of Advantage.
Ran across this video on Advantage Plans the other day on C-Span. Haven't watched it in its entirety yet, but plan to. First 10 minutes or so appeared very interesting. Various health care experts on the future of Advantage.
Thanks Ariadne. The link is long, but well worth the information that it provides. The committee is so bitterly partisan though. It was snarky how the committee chairman cut Rep Kind off before he could get a response from the panel and how the Repub sycophant conveniently didn't know the answer to Kind's question about the risk adjustment from the 2003 Act being unfunded. No wonder nothing gets done in Washington.
I haven't watched the video yet because my speakers aren't working, but one thing I have noticed over the past two or three years is that predictions of the demise of Medicare Advantage Plans have been premature, in general. Sure, there have been providers and insurers which have dropped their Med. Ad. Plan offerings, but at least here in the Los Angeles area I still get inundated every year with advertisements for gobs of plans. Also, I just received the 2013 information from my own plan (Kaiser); most of the co-pays remain the same, a few have gone up, but overall it remains pretty darn reasonable. Doctor visits, including specialists are still $5; lab work including normal x-rays is still $20; but MRI, CT, and PET scans are up to $170 a pop; flu shots remain free, and the montly plan premiums remain at zero. Every year one or two things go up, while most things remain the same. Maybe they figure if they put the screws to us slowly and gradually no one will notice. Well, I do notice and I will always re-evaluate year by year. And who knows, maybe in a few more years that type of plan may be just about dead. But so far they seem to be alive and well.
I haven't watched the video yet because my speakers aren't working, but one thing I have noticed over the past two or three years is that predictions of the demise of Medicare Advantage Plans have been premature, in general. Sure, there have been providers and insurers which have dropped their Med. Ad. Plan offerings, but at least here in the Los Angeles area I still get inundated every year with advertisements for gobs of plans. Also, I just received the 2013 information from my own plan (Kaiser); most of the co-pays remain the same, a few have gone up, but overall it remains pretty darn reasonable. Doctor visits, including specialists are still $5; lab work including normal x-rays is still $20; but MRI, CT, and PET scans are up to $170 a pop; flu shots remain free, and the montly plan premiums remain at zero. Every year one or two things go up, while most things remain the same. Maybe they figure if they put the screws to us slowly and gradually no one will notice. Well, I do notice and I will always re-evaluate year by year. And who knows, maybe in a few more years that type of plan may be just about dead. But so far they seem to be alive and well.
You're lucky to live in a high capitation region like LA Cty! If you lived in a low reimbursement area, you would really freak out over how much more out of pocket you would experience. It's one of the very rare bargains that you will find in Los Angeles.
You're lucky to live in a high capitation region like LA Cty! If you lived in a low reimbursement area, you would really freak out over how much more out of pocket you would experience. It's one of the very rare bargains that you will find in Los Angeles.
Yes, so I understand. Indeed, it's unusual to find the word "bargain" attached to Los Angeles. Actually, my Kaiser plan covers the entirety of Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
Gee whiz, here in Maricopa Co and parts of pinal, BCBS and Banner Health are merging together to offer 3 Medicare Advantage Plans with either no premiums,and /or very small ones. Yes, all are HMOs but you have your choice of 1200 docs in the area with every specialty covered. I sincerely doubt Advantage plans will be going away, since this doesn't start til 2013. I may switch, although I really like the Advantage plan I have now, except for less docs.
They are not going away but their extra funding by government is slowly being cut to same has standard fee for service overtime.Its part of how they got that 500 billion in ten years from medicare to fund the new healthcare law .
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