The demographics of the Medicare Advantage (MA) program are very different from Fee For Service (FFS) Medicare, with greater enrollment of retired working class and middle class beneficiaries and greater Hispanic and African-American beneficiaries. With a holistic health benefits package constructed from FFS Medicare costing the beneficiary twice as much as Medicare Advantage, it is no surprise that the population enrolled in FFS Medicare who has purchased a separate Medigap plan are far wealthier and more likely to be Caucasian. Of the estimated 29.7 million enrolled in FFS Medicare in CY2022, 12.5 million purchased a Medigap plan with 91% being Caucasian.
Category: Single-Payer/Medicare-for-All
NYT: Medicare to Curtail Abusive Spending on Hyper-Expensive Bandages
Going after Medicare abuse is like playing whack a mole. Just when you think you have made some headway another mole pops out. The Biden Administration, and now the Trump Administration, is moving to limit the use – and limit the price paid – for so-called skin substitutes in Medicare. Skin substitutes are newfangled bandages.
Medicare to Finally Go After Waste, Fraud and Abuse
Medicare has a long way to go, but perhaps the agency is moving in the right direction.
KFF: Federal Proposals Threaten Key Source of State Medicaid Funding
The Kaiser Family Foundation had this to say:
Republican efforts to restrict taxes on hospitals, health plans, and other providers that states use to help fund their Medicaid programs could strip them of tens of billions of dollars. The move could shrink access to health care for some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable people, warn analysts, patient advocates, and Democratic political leaders.