Shannon Brownlee thinks that the recently passed Medicare bill should have been vetoed, since some Medicare Advantage plans are doing a good job:
Taking money away from Medicare Advantage is the wrong thing to do, but not because it reduces “choice” for Medicare recipients. Medicare Advantage, which pays a premium to health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, and so-called private fee-for-service plans, was originally enacted 25 years ago to encourage the growth of HMOs. It was intended to help true staff model health maintenance organizations, like Kaiser and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, which deliver high quality care ““ and have high patient satisfaction ““ for lower costs.
Partisanship has led to the “all or nothing” approach, with little room for compromise.
As an aside, I’m enjoying Ms. Brownlee’s guest blogging stint over at Ezra’s. She should start her own blog if she hasn’t done so already.
Related posts:
- Lower drug prices, but fewer choices
- The Medicare cuts
- Doctors asking patients to pay more of their bill up front
- "Medicare for all" = lower administrative costs?
- Medicare fallout
- Free doctors, save Medicare
- Single payer myths
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