theabcsofmedicare

April 2014 Obama-Administration Medicare Part B Data Dump Is A Dump

The recently announced and much ballyhooed Medicare "provider" data dump provides such a small and skewed view of annual Medicare spending as to be worse than useless. It is small because providers only account for about 10% of the Medicare spend. (The providers' portion of the public Part C Medicare Advantage health plan capitation fee is presumably about the same  -- but perhaps a little higher. We don't know because Obama never tells us. And my Powerpoint does not reflect that because I didn't feel like playing with Excel any more.) 

The dumpy Obama dump covers just partial Part B Trust Fund disbursements and just disbursements made by "Original Medicare" insurance companies, noted as "FFS Provider," "FFS Lab" and "FFS Transport" in the left and top of the pie chart in the image above. (Original Medicare insurance companies include insurers such as Wellpoint and Noridian and are also called Medicare Administrative Contractors.)

American Medical Association Hates Seniors; Says Dump Medicare Part D

It's hard to figure why the American Medical Association (AMA) would put out a blog post attacking its major customer base (people on Medicare) but doctors are notoriously bad businesspeople. On its Journal web site this week, the AMA published a strained and insulting comparison of Part D Medicare's standalone prescription drug program with the insurance available under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The article is based on bad numbers and ends with the conclusion that the nation should dump Medicare Part D in favor of PPACA insurance.

Despite the AMA's lies, here is how the two programs really compare:

Seniors, Beware of Republican and Democratic Party Scaremongers on Medicare

• Here we have a pure Republican scaremonger named McCaughey, former New York lieutenant governor, claiming that seniors will not be covered if they are observed in a hospital. It is clear why she is the former lieutenant governor.
• Here we have a Democratic propagandist's blog post on the Washington Post's web site claiming that seniors could "max out" their Medicare benefits if their Medicare ID is stolen.
• Here we have the Massachusetts Democratic-Party political machine called Elder Affairs and SHINE -- that supposedly give unbiased advice to seniors -- handing out lying Democratic political propaganda about the so-called Part D "donut hole." (One SHINE document used to claim that there were Five Parts of Medicare in order to make some obtuse political point but has been corrected after complaints on this blog post.)
• Here we have a former Republican head of the so-called Congressional Budget Office claiming that the public Part C Medicare Advantage health plan program will go out of business because of Obamacare.

Seniors, wherever you turn you are being lied to by politicans on all sides of the spectrum about Medicare.

Private Medigap Medicare-Supplement Market Continues Years-Long Death Spiral

An insurance research house called Farrah recently announced its annual review of the private Medigap Medicare-supplement insurance market and the steady years-long withering of the Medigap market continues. While the over all Medicare-supplement opportunity grew more than 10% (that's mostly the so-called 10,000-a-day baby boomers you hear about) and the number of beneficiaries choosing public Part C Medicare Advantage policies grew even faster in the 2014 policy year (according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services as documented by Kaiser), the number of Medigap policies written increased only about 1%.

(illustration is from previous year MedPAC report)

Center for Medicare Advocacy Advocates for Seniors with Two or Three Homes, Screws Poor

You would almost think a far-left-wing group called the Center for Medicare Advocacy is a far-right-wing group given its latest diatribe against "voucherizing Medicare." The diatribe came as part of a protest against the 2015 public Part C Medicare Advantage bidding rules announced in early April.

Happy Birthday Senator Wyden, the Happiest Man in America Because He Doesn't Need Medicare

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon is probably best known for proposing Medicare reform (see visual) in 2011 along with the most hated Congressman in America, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. The Oregonian newspaper recently noted that Senator Wyden of Oregon (who apparently lives in New York according to people from Oregon just like Massachusetts Senator Markey lives in Maryland) celebrated his 65th birthday.

The newspaper says:

"Wyden says he... will stay on his Senate health plan instead of moving to Medicare." 

Seniors: Use medicare.gov, Not medicare.com

This headline that relates to my day job recently caught my attention:

"A huge domain name sale: Medicare.com sells for $4.8 million."

Just a reminder of information I have covered in more detail elsewhere. Stay away from sites with a ".com" at the end. They are just trying to sell you something and not providing unbiased information about Medicare.

There can be no better proof of that then the fact that an insurance broker paid so much money just to own the domain. (Actually eHealth is an exchange but that word's meaning has been bastardized by the Obama administration.)