Quote:
Originally Posted by Happydaz
There is a recent article published in Forbes Magazine (June 15, 2022) on Medicare Advantage Plans. It says Medicare Advantage patients cost on average 4% more per year than what an average patient costs on traditional Medicare. The article has a lot of other interesting information as well. I am no expert and and I was only posting this because I was so surprised when talking to my friend that these Advantage plans weren’t saving money over traditional Medicare.
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A regular Medicare patient with a supplement policy has zero copays when they receive almost any treatment. If the Government wanted to substantially reduce the cost of the program, they would require patients to have "skin in the game" by requiring copays and offering incentives for the patient to find less expensive treatments and to avoid unnecessary treatments..
I remember visiting my mother one time when she had a 6 foot high stack of blood sugar testing supplies in her kitchen. Her vision was so bad that she was not able to test her sugar level. But, since she had no copay, she had no reason to stop the deliveries, and she didn't know how to stop them anyway. During the last 4 months of her life, a primary care doctor visited her in the hospital or nursing home every day, 7 days per week, and billed Medicare for an office visit. My mother never hired this doctor, but assumed that she worked for the hospital. The doctor never prescribed anything or provided any treatment.