ASSOCIATED PRESS
Open enrollment for Medicare opened on Sunday. During the enrollment period, which ends Dec. 7, people will have the opportunity to choose between traditional Medicare and privately run Medicare Advantage plans, as well as prescription drug plans.
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It is far too confusing and difficult for many, if not most, individual Medicare beneficiaries to choose their optimal Medicare plan (“Annual window to shop for Medicare Advantage plans returns on Sunday,” Star-Advertiser, Top News, Oct. 14). The system is fixed to allow major medical services to take advantage of our senior citizens for the benefit of big medicine and not the benefit of the individuals they serve.
That is why so much of the Medicare dollar is spent on convincing beneficiaries to choose one plan over another. Medicare could save money by eliminating all Advantage plans and maintaining just basic Medicare, with perhaps one or two options to choose from. That would put the advantage in the hands of the beneficiaries instead of the plan administrators.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services thought it could save money by having these Advantage plans “manage” the patients instead of allowing primary-care physicians to manage their patients. Most physicians are fed up with being subjected to the management of overpaid administrators.
Gerald Ching
Waialae Iki
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