There’s answers to all of that, of course, but I’m tired, so I’ll just address this one – the whole Medicare Advantage program was a big screw-up. By phasing it out, it’ll automatically reduce the deficit. MA was created in the Bush years – a group of insurance companies came and said “we can provide the same care as Medicare to Medicare patients at 80% of the cost.” So the Congress created Medicare Advantage. As it turns out, MA provides the same level of care (not better care – outcomes are similar) to Medicare patients at 120% of the cost. (Those numbers from memory.) Clearly, a failed experiment. But when Obama tried to zero it out in the 2010 budget, the oh-so-deficit conscious GOP refused, and demagogued him for trying to cut Medicare for our seniors. But now we’re finally going to get it fixed.
There are several factual inaccuracies in this, but I am also tired and not interested in addressing them all. However, I will point you to Wikipedia:
So, Part C was created under the Clinton administration, receiving a name change under the Bush years.
Also, the MA payment rates are set by the government, not by the insurance companies. CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) can simply elect to reduce these rates to be more in line with traditional Medicare rates. This is precisely what they’ve been doing over the past several years, slowly bringing the payment rates more in line with traditional Medicare spending.
One final point: MA plans cover either the same or richer benefits as compared to traditional Medicare. It’s true that the overall health of the MA population is not better than under traditional Medicare (and there are several possible explanations for this that I won’t get into), but more out of pocket costs are covered as required by law.
Why on earth would rational people pay attention to IBD? Their Hawking stupidity may be the worst example of their lack of integrity, but it’s certainly not the only one. They don’t rise to the level of an acceptable cite.
Hmm. Really does make me wonder what percentage of conservatives and libertarians think that absolutely nothing needs to be done with the current system - that it serves as many people as it’s going to serve as best as it possibly can.
You are correct–socialized healthcare would be a great step forward for this country. However, many citizens of the US have been trained to prefer giant steps backward, even against their own self-interest.
So the watered-down-for-the-slack-jawed, decidedly non-Socialist healthcare reform bill that will be passed tonight ends up being just a small step forward.