Medicare Advantage plans will not face big payment cuts until 2012. Under the health care reform bill, Advantage plans will get the same payments in 2011 as they received in 2010. Medicare Advantage plans for 2011 have seen few changes and limited increases in costs to people enrolled in the plans.Delaying major cuts until after the mid-term elections in November this year seemed like a wise decision for Democrats. People enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans receive their Annual Notice of Change in late-October, and I had envisioned 11 million seniors getting news this October that “their” Medicare would change - a lot. But it looks like that will happen in October 2011, a non-election year.
Medicare Advantage enrollment is still growing: From what I’ve read on the Kaiser Family Foundation web site, Medicare Advantage enrollment increased by 5.5% in 2009 across the country. Nearly 11.5 million people are now enrolled in Advantage plans nationwide, with most of them in HMO network plans. This means that nearly 25% of seniors are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, though states like California, Florida and Arizona have more than 30% enrollment levels.
Private-Fee-For-Service plan enrollment dropped 28% in 2009 because of plan cancellations and large premium increases. These plans just don’t make sense anymore, and most have been cancelled for 2011.
AARP is a joke in supporting the health care reform, when you are disabled you can not afford to buy a medigap plan. Without my advantage plan I will end up loosing a good part of my coverage. Regular medicare does not get the job done. When they destroy the advantage plans I will say good by to medicare and drop out. I am tired of being forced to pay for coverage that I can not afford to use.
I am watching Medicare Advantage changes closely. We won’t know the details of changes for 2011 until October of this year – but what I am hearing so far is that the changes will be slight for next year – and many changes will be good for consumers.
-All Advantage plans will have caps on out-of-pocket expenses.
-High co-pays for things like oxygen, will be reduced or limited.
In Arizona we actually have new Advantage plans entering the market and expanding to new areas of the state. So I think the demise of Medicare Advantage is a bit premature.
It seems that with all the cuts to the Medicare Advantage program the future viability of this program is somewhat dire. Withe Medicare Supplement plan N and BIG rate increases in 2012, I don’t see how Medicare Advantage survives. I’d be curious to see if others think it can last past 2013?
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