Right wing publications such as Forbes are just as bad as the left-wing media in pumping out bad information about United States Medicare. It's just that there are so few right wing publications and -- unlike the left-wing so-called mainstream media -- the righties all try to be fair and balanced. This linked analysis and/or the study it is describing is not just the typical mix up of causality and correlation. Apparently the study was done using some data on beneficiaries of a Part C special needs plan but that does not mean it applies only to people on Part C or to all programs within Part C.
The problems in this article begin with the first paragraph. Public Part C Medicare Advantage plans do not “currently insure nearly one-third of all Americans over 65.” In 2014, about 30% of the people on Medicare subscribe to a public Part C health plan. But
- not all Part C health plans are Medicare Advantage plans
- and almost 20% of the Medicare universe is under 65.
- and not all Americans over 65 are on Medicare.
The article begins with that trifecta of Medicare misunderstanding and then gets deeper into the weeds. Who says the goals of the Part C health plan program are
“improving health outcomes by organizing care of older Americans and reducing costs.”
That is not correct. The goal of the public Part C health plan program is to give those of us on Medicare – whatever our age – an alternative to the failed traditional unmanaged fee for service (FFS) Medicare program, to give us the same choices that everyone not on Medicare gets. Some of the choices are accountable care organizations and some are networks of providers (with the ability to go out of network), some are better managed FFS plans, and some are special needs plans (e.g., for people also on Medicaid as in the study described in Forbes).
All the resultant statistics in the Forbes article have nothing in particular to do with the public Part C health plan program. They apply to everyone… everyone on Medicare not just on Part C… and everyone else in the nation. That is why all Obamacare insurance is based on the same concept.
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