Understanding the United States Medicare Part C and Part D Star Rating System

Before we get to far into the Medicare Part C and Part D annual (so-called open) enrollment season, it's worth a second discussing the Medicare Star Rating System:

"Ignore it; it's useless."

For more details read on but you would really spend your time more productively beginning to enter your drug list in the Medicare Plan Finder and look at the high level details of the various plans offered in your county (there are only usually three or four companies. each with two plans on average).

According to various Obama administration propaganda, the Star Rating system is intended

“To give seniors tools to help them choose the best plans... based on factors such as access to doctors and customer service. But seniors seem to pay little attention. In recent years, the best-rated health plans, those with five stars, have increased enrollment at the slowest pace...”

How can that be given that the administration has tied the Star Ratings to all those savings in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act¹ that are going to both protect those of us on Medicare from benefits cuts and fund healthcare insurance for those to young to be on Medicare?

The reason is that there are only a few dozen or less 5-Star Part C Medicare Advantage plans in the whole United States. A third of them come from the far-left-wing Kaiser Insurance Company of California -- which is the organization that puts out the propaganda on Star Ratings for the Obama administration. So it likely no 5-Star plan is available to you.  There is only one in New England -- where we supposedly have the best health care in the world -- but it is only of value if you live in the Greater Springfield, Massachusetts area (Springfield is only the fifth largest city in New England).

On the other hand, almost everyone in the Part C program gets three and a half or four or four and a half starts because that's all it took the last few years to get a government bonus. This year, the bar is raised a little. Guess what? So will the ratings. But with everyone getting the same ratings, there is no value in the system.

That is not to mention that the things the rating system measures are kind of silly².

¹But to be clear the star rating system long predates the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

 

²The rating system is not based on the benefits provided but on the perceived quality of the insurance vs. what was promised (but the way the rating is measured is what makes it useless). An example of the insurer cutting call waiting times is an example of how stupid the system is because few people call the insurer; you call the doctor.