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ALREADY BEEN INFORMED I WILL LOSE MY FREE GYM MEMBERSHIP, WHICH I DON'T
USE ANYWAY!)
Saturday, March 27th
2010, 4:00
AM
Siegel for News
Medicare
beneficiaries
won't see a decline in care, they'll receive improved benefits under the
new
health care law.
No one is "pulling the plug on granny" under the health care bill President Obama signed this week. If
anything,
experts say, granny will soon be pulling down new benefits.
While Obama's health care overhaul does eventually trim subsidies to Medicare Advantage - which are privately
managed
policies that some seniors pay extra for - older Americans should see
little or
no decline in care.
New York's 2.8 million Medicare beneficiaries should actually
find
several new goodies in the new law, among them $250 rebates this year to
help
fill the so-called "doughnut hole" in prescription drug coverage.
"This health reform improves benefits, it does not take away
benefits, for
seniors," said Tricia Neuman, vice president for the
nonpartisan
Kaiser Family Foundation. "It strengthens
Medicare
by keeping it fiscally stronger for longer, and it puts in place reforms
that
should genuinely improve quality of care."
The new law also eliminates co-pays for checkups and other preventive
procedures under Medicare starting in 2011 and guarantees balanced books
for
Medicare through at least 2026.
There are changes in store for Medicare Advantage - privately run
plans that
some 360,000 city seniors pay a little extra for.
The policies were created in the 1980s, when private insurers argued
they
could meet or beat Medicare's services in exchange for federal dollars
that were
about 5% less than regular Medicare.
Today, the math is reversed: Taxpayers fork over 14% more to Medicare
Advantage companies to care for seniors - a $12 billion pot that Obama
called an
unnecessary windfall for the industry.
The law will freeze Medicare Advantage payments to insurers in 2011,
then
gradually align them with regular Medicare payments by 2014.
Some have worried that the trims could force Medicare Advantage plans
to
raise premiums, but experts say it's unlikely - the bill also includes
cash
bonuses for companies that keep costs down and health up.
"What we hope will happen is a race to the top among plans that
really want
... to get those additional bonus payments," said Joe
Baker, president of the nonpartisan Medicare Rights Center.
dsaltonstall@nydailynews.com
Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/03/27/2010-03-27_new_law_takes_good_medicare_of_granny.html?print=1&page=all#ixzz0jOk9IYi3