Thursday, November 10, 2011

Seniors Find They CAN’T Keep Their Current Coverage

An article in the Marin Independent Journal today profiles a decision by Anthem Blue Cross to terminate its Medicare Advantage plan, resulting in more than 100,000 California seniors losing access to their current coverage:

Ng said Anthem Blue Cross decided to end its [Medicare] Advantage plan because otherwise, rising costs would have required it to either increase premiums or reduce benefits.

Wanda Jones, president of San Francisco’s New Century Healthcare Institute, said Anthem Blue Cross also may be reacting to changes in federal regulation of Advantage plans that are being implemented as part of health care reform.

“The feds have let these plans know that they intend to make them roll back their costs to match Medicare basic,” Jones said. “It’s Blue Cross wanting to cut its potential losses before they occur.”

Anthem’s decision will affect 113,000 Medicare beneficiaries statewide, and decisions by other health plans to drop their Advantage plans will force another 37,000 beneficiaries in California to switch plans, said Jack Cheevers, a Medicare spokesman.

The article also notes that “Anthem’s exit leaves Kaiser Permanente as the only private company offering an Advantage plan in Marin” County – meaning seniors there will NOT have a choice of plans.

Last week, Speaker Pelosi admitted that Democrats “took a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare” in Obamacare, to pay for costly new entitlements.  the article once again illustrates how taking that money out of Medicare has affected seniors – higher premiums, reduced benefits, dropped coverage, and less choice.

As a reminder, the Obama campaign platform promised that “you will not have to change plans.  For those who have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan – except that you will pay less.”  Today’s development once again proves how that promise has fallen short for hundreds of thousands of seniors.