Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Medicare Advantage Plan Cancelled

Wanted to pass on this article from this morning’s Boston Globe reporting that Harvard Pilgrim Health Care “will drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to seek alternative supplemental coverage.”  The article notes that the change “was prompted by a freeze in federal reimbursements” prompted by the health care law; as a senior executive observed, “We became concerned by the long-term viability of Medicare Advantage programs in general….We know that cuts in Medicare are being used to fund national health care reform.”

The announcement comes two days after the Administration ran a full-page national advertisement featuring Andy Griffith in Parade magazine, claiming that “Medicare just got stronger” due to the health care law.  The tens of thousands of seniors about to lose coverage as a result of that law may beg to differ.