Wednesday, December 5, 2007

$2 Here, $2 There...Seniors Are Tired of Footing the Bill

Throughout the year, seniors nationwide have been urging Congress to reform the Medicare Advantage program. National Committee members have mailed about 73,000 letters to Capitol Hill on this issue and have now delivered 48,000 petitions to the Senate. It appears the Senate Finance committee is finally ready to consider its Medicare legislation, and a mark-up is scheduled for any day now.

Seniors from the National Committee and the Alliance for Retired Americans delivered the latest batch of Medicare reform petitions to the Senate on Tuesday. You can link to video of the event here. Beneficiaries also waved $2 bills symbolizing the extra money they pay each month in Medicare premiums, whether they’ve signed up for Medicare Advantage or not, to fund these industry subsidies.

Sadie Coleman is a Medicare beneficiary with 10 children, 46 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. She told the Capitol Hill crowd she stayed with traditional Medicare because, like many other seniors, she’s found private insurers in Medicare Advantage “tell you one thing, then they do another”.

Seniors like Sadie want private plans to compete on a level playing field with Medicare. Private insurers have promised they can provide better Medicare coverage for less...reforms to Medicare Advantage let’s them prove it.

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