Massachusetts Health Stats

More Far-Left-Wing "Massachusetts Sucks for Seniors" Crap from Organizations Sucking Medicare Dry

One of the biggest drains on the Medicare trust funds are funds for shady home health care services. Maybe related, maybe not there is a home care group that spends tens of thousands of dollars annually lobbying the Massachusetts legislature with a strange stew of "our clients (seniors) are stupid" mixed with a mid-1930s-sounding Socialism/Communism manifesto. Luckily its lobbyist -- who publishes tripe regularly in a left-wing blog called Over 50 Advocates¹ -- does not speak for we seniors. If he or she did, his or her proposals -- which basically say that we seniors all should be put on Medicaid and/or be farmed out in our older years to his or her government-funded clients -- might cause concern.

So you can pretty much dismiss this group's nonsense except for its recent unsourced reference to a “recent report” about economic insecurity among Massachusetts citizens over 65.

Massachusetts Seniors: Sign Up Now for the Greatest Bargain in Medicare

Massachusetts seniors, especially if you're one of the seniors -- like I am -- that bitches about the corruption and inefficiency in Massachusetts state government, now's the time to get on the gravy train.

Massachusetts has what is probably one of the best State Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs in the United States.

Massachusetts Senators Markey, Warren Protest Obama's Crackdown on Massachusetts Medicare Fraud and Abuse

The for-profit home-health-care lobby in Massachusetts reports that Massachusetts' ultra-liberal Democratic United States senators -- Elizabeth Warren and something Markey (not sure I've ever heard his name given that he lives in Maryland) -- want the insurance company that runs Original Democratic-Party "as you know it" Medicare in Massachusetts to stop its crackdown on Medicare fraud and abuse. National Government Services, the subsidiary of the for-profit Wellpoint Insurance Company of Indiana -- which runs Medicare in Massachusetts is said by the lobby and/or the senators to impose an

"onerous medical review process relative to the Physician Face-to-Face Requirement"

included in the Democrats' own Medicare law.

In Massachusetts, FDR's Grandson Squeezes Seniors on Medicare to Cover High Medicaid Costs

(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)

OK, that headline's a little over the top but that's apparently how you get people to read blog posts. (Either that or you claim that the Democratic Congresspeople and politicians who just paid you about $4,000,000 are "stupid").

What this post really is about is a great Boston Business Journal summary of Tufts Health Plan's 2014 and 2015 financial outlook by reporter Jessica Bartlett. (But if I just put that in the headline, would you have clicked through?). Bartlett's story is much better than the mail-it-in crap in the Globe this morning which just regurgitates the third quarter numbers without giving the full-year or lookahead context. You might understand that sort of story in the Globe if it were bylined by some junior journalism intern but the Globe story was written by its leading business editor.

AARP Giving Massachusetts Seniors Bad Medicare Advice

(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)

AARP of course wants to sell you Medicare insurance and anyone that sells anything wants to sell you something sooner rather than later. That's why you should be very leery of a recent AARP Medicare advertisement  from a Mr. Festa of AARP Massachusetts dressed up to look like a magazine article and appearing in various Massachusetts publications. Mr. Festa says:

"This is the one chance the nearly one million Medicare beneficiaries in Massachusetts have to review and make changes to their coverage for the year ahead."

That statement is not true.

Massachusetts Medicare Insurer Commonwealth Care Issues Seniors Bad Advice

(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)

Massachusetts seniors, I'd be very leery of any advice column you see from a Massachusetts insurance company called Commonweatlh Care (not to be confused with the original RomneyCare insurance of the same name, now called Connector Care) for three reasons:

1. Commonwealth Care's advice is skewed to its insurance offering
2. It is written from an odd age perspective given that it is about joining Medicare rather than changing Medicare options (which is what is going on currently until December 7). Most people join Medicare when they are 65 and are fully capable of making decisions such as these and have been making such decisions for 50 years. If for some reason a person at age 65 cannot make these simple decisions, they should not be deciding about anything, never mind Medicare
3. It's just plain wrong that choices among HMOs, PPOs and indemnity fee-for-service insurance are at all unusual or confusing for someone just now joining Medicare. We baby boomers have been making this decision (including for our children) for 45-55 years. Such choices are confusing for our childrens' grandparents -- if you are lucky enough that they are still alive -- but not us
   

Did Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey Vote to Kick His Republican Opponent's Mother Off Her Medigap Insurance?

(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)

There is reportedly a strange ad running in the lightly contested Republican effort to unseat United States Senator Edward Markey of Massashusetts. Supposeldy the Republican's mother, who does not live in Massachusetts¹ but in Pennsylvania, lost her Medigap insurance because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, better known as Obamacare).

Vermont's Shumlin: Blood-Sucking Massachusetts Republican Charlie Baker Screws Seniors on Medicare

That blood-sucking, billionairre Massachusetts Republican governor candidate Charlie Baker screws thousands of seniors out of their Medicare coverage according to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, chairman, and the rest of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA).

I was surprised to find (and very much doubt) that -- according to the Boston Globe on October 24 -- candidate Baker has opened up an almost 10-point lead in the Massachusetts governor race.

Former Massachusetts "Traditional Medicare" Insurance Company Admits Bad Cost Accounting, Still Gets Massachusetts State Contract to Run MassHealth

(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)

With a little work I could really pull a Boston Globe and make my post's headline read as if the private insurance company that used to run¹ all of Original LBJ/Democratic-Party/"as we know it" Medicare in Massachusetts (and elsewhere in New England) was a crooked, blood sucking, for-profit bunch of billionairres apparently paying off state politicians with some kind of bribes (maybe just campaign contributions) to get a multimillion-dollar contract to provide terrible health-care administration services to the poor and downtrodden on Medicaid here in the Bay State.

But the news is less dramatic than the way left-wing newspapers such as the Boston Globe like to portray things.

Where's Waldo from the 1950s Rexall Drug Store Wants to Raise Massachusetts Senior-Citizen Drug Costs

(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)

A couple of leftists from PUTTS, which believe it or not is the name of the old 20th-century pharmacist monoploy, wants to drive drug prices for seniors on Medicare Part D back to 1950 price levels. This recent editorial position of the Springfield Republican newspaper explains what the leftist Republican (ironic, isn't it?), and the leftists its editors hang with in Congress want to do to us seniors. 

In my opinion Waldo at the local Rexall better go back to the 1950s where he came from. Have a frappe at the soda fountain while you're there, Waldo.