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A Sobering View of Medicare Advantage plans - Chicago Tribune
No question about it – Medicare Advantage plans are all the rage, now providing healthcare coverage for more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries. Those TV ads touting wonderful benefits at little or no extra cost are, indeed, quite effective at luring many seniors away from “original Medicare” to private coverage which offers extra services Medicare itself does not provide. Well, remember that old adage which cautions “if it sounds too good to be true, it is?” This Chicago Tribune article by Terry Savage digs deep into the Medicare Advantage insurance plan world to reveal “the disadvantages of Medicare Advantage,” including limiting which doctors and service providers you are allowed to use, and requiring pre-approval for many medical procedures. Requiring pre-approval, thus, moves many of your healthcare decisions away from your doctor to a non-medical plan administrator whose goal is to lower expenses for the insurance company. Consequently, many doctors and medical service providers are declining to accept Medicare Advantage plans, further compromising your healthcare – an ominous situation described in this Chicago Tribune article.