![\"Medicare\"](\"http:\/\/s217.photobucket.com\/albums\/cc83\/TomCat1948or2\/Blog%202010\/J-M\/ThoseMedicareAdvantagePlansandMe_2110\/Medicare.jpg\" "\\"Medicare\\"")
<\/a> In October 2009, here’s how Sen. Jay Rockefeller described<\/span> the Medicare Advantage plans:<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Inserted from <Crooks and Liars<\/a>> AboutMost of you probably know that our government pays more per beneficiary to private insurance companies to provide Medicare Advantage plans than it spends per person on original Medicare. In October 2009, here’s how Sen. Jay Rockefeller described the Medicare Advantage plans: “It’s a wasteful, inefficient program and always has been,” Sen. John D. Rockefeller […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-politics","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In the interest of full disclosure, let men begin by saying that I subscribe to a Medicare Advantage plan.
Rockefeller\u2019s statement is incorrect. My plan offers many preventive services that traditional Medicare does not cover, I can\u2019t speak for other plans, but the increase in premium for my plan was 5.4%. Of course, I do not (and would not use) one of the giant killer companies like Cigna or Wellpoint. I use Providence, a local Oregon company. Other than guilt over the destruction of half a rainforest to make the endless stream of paperwork I receive from them, I\u2019m thoroughly satisfied with their service.
While I agree that government ought not to give Medicare Advantage plans an unfair advantage, I justify my own participation, because I was denied health care for years while the Social Security Administration unjustly denied my disability claim. I need the additional services just to make my health care current after years of enforced neglect, so I figure I have it coming. I do support cutting payments to private insurers\u2019 Medicare Advantage plans to the same level that government spends on Medicare. While that may be against my own self-interest, I am not so hypocritical as to support policies for my personal benefit over the good of the nation as a whole. However, including more preventive services in traditional Medicare and closing the prescription coverage gap are necessary reforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"