Democrats Want to Kill Medicare Advantage

I wrote several blog posts in February and March explaining why Democrats hate Medicare Advantage.  To see them, look in the archives for those months.  Simply put, this was a program designed to encourage private alternatives to the traditional government Medicare program.  It provided lower costs to consumers and, at the same time, superior service.  The trade-off was that consumers had to deal with the doctors and hospitals on the insurer's list -- they gave up some freedom of choice.

The Wall street Journal has now published an interesting opinion article,  entitled Farewell, Medicare Advantage, which describes the attempts of the Administration to blame the inevitable cuts in the Medicare Advantage program on the insurance companies, rather than on the costs cuts required by the healthcare legislation.  It also notes some of the studies showing that Medicare Advantage improved the quality of medical care.  Thus, the Journal says:

"According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the Advantage HMOs that serve 15% of all seniors in Medicare cost on average two percentage points less for the same benefits than the traditional program, without fiat pricing.
Using government data, the insurer trade group AHIP estimates that Advantage beneficiaries in California spend 30% fewer days in the hospital than fee for service, 23% fewer days in Nevada. These successes and others have come about because Advantage allowed insurers and providers to collaborate, pay for value and coordinate care."

The article is well worth reading.  It is unfortunate that the Democrat's general antagonism to private enterprise leads them to  cut a program that provides major benefits to a quarter of all Medicare enrollees.