Letters to the Editor is a periodic function. We welcome all feedback and can publish a variety. We edit for size and readability and require full names.
In response to Sarah Jane Tribble’s report about rising enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans — and the rising considerations — a senior coverage adviser on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation weighed in on X, previously generally known as Twitter:
Managed care backlash in full swing as extra shoppers turn into conscious of the tradeoffs concerned selecting M.A. https://t.co/7EAMZJ9YJk
— Katherine Hempstead (@khemp64) January 8, 2024
— Katherine Hempstead, Princeton, New Jersey
Medicare Advantage: To Whose Advantage?
Sarah Jane Tribble did a superb job reporting on Medicare Advantage plans and the key limitations inside them that go away folks principally screwed (“Older Americans Say They Feel Trapped in Medicare Advantage Plans,” Jan. 5).
Don’t overlook presidential hopeful Nikki Haley at one of many Republican debates acknowledged that Medicare Advantage plans are what nearly all of seniors need and must be expanded.
That subsequent morning, I instantly referred to as the South Carolina Democratic Party and supplied that they need to be standing on their desks demonizing her as a result of they know full properly that low-income, underserved Black folks in South Carolina rural ZIP codes wouldn’t be eligible for Advantage plans the place care is linked to ZIP code.
Shame on all events and candidates who by no means point out single-payer common well being care (aside from Green Party candidates).
Good information story, Ms. Tribble.
— Steve Scuderi, Chicago
A well being providers researcher within the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University additionally praised the article on social media:
This piece is REALLY nice (thanks, @sjtribble!). We are engaged on a grant associated to this subject now (thanks, @LLSusa!) and can’t emphasize sufficient how vital this problem is for folks getting older into Medicare. https://t.co/lQqFsnUfp9
— Stacie Dusetzina (@DusetzinaS) January 5, 2024
— Stacie Dusetzina, Nashville, Tennessee
The founder and president of Healthcare Navigation, a consultancy, added recommendation for medical health insurance consumers on X:
Beneficiaries who initially enroll in conventional Medicare are assured to qualify for a Medigap coverage with out pricing primarily based on their medical historical past.Find out extra right here: https://t.co/agG9VH8Hxo pic.twitter.com/pmnq9eDYAQ
— Maura Carley (@MauraCarley) January 20, 2024
— Maura Carley, Darien, Connecticut
Don’t Blame Patients for Unaffordable Health Care
This op-ed (not article) by KFF Health News reporter Julie Appleby shames the previous Olympic athlete for her monetary misery and for being unable to handle her funds and well being — whereas unwell, injured, or chronically disabled (“Mary Lou Retton’s Explanation of Health Insurance Takes Some Somersaults,” Jan. 12).
The writing implies that an American shopper or citizen is usually a very “successful person in your other life” however “not understand American health care” and that monetary misery may have been prevented if solely Mary Lou Retton had been extra assertive, knowledgeable, and clever.
Appleby states that “Retton excelled in landing difficult moves as a gymnast, but she may have missed the bar when it came to buying insurance coverage.”
This notion — particularly amongst well being journalists and newsrooms overlaying the well being care mannequin within the U.S. — that industrial medical health insurance ensures entry to well being care, or that the Affordable Care Act is reasonably priced and ensures entry — is a false one. ACA plans are largely managed by non-public industrial medical health insurance firms. The business enterprise mannequin is “Denial of Care.” That is how insurers ship returns on funding to shareholders 12 months after 12 months, quarter after quarter, and revenue from sickness, harm, incapacity, and loss of life. This mannequin as of in the present day remains to be authorized. And, with PxDx software program and artificial intelligence, firms are actually denying medical care claims at a price of 100 per 1.2 seconds.
To recommend paying for industrial medical health insurance guarantees medical care is editorially irresponsible. To recommend a citizen was not clever sufficient to navigate the barbaric and merciless industrial medical health insurance business’s non-system of well being care is reprehensible and repugnant. The just one who “missed the bar” was Appleby and her misinformed editors.
KFF Health News has been partnering with NPR and CBS for practically seven years on the “Bill of the Month” collection. During that point, doctor suicide has reached report highs, medical employee strikes have hit report highs, medical invoice bankruptcies have reached report highs, medical residents throughout the nation are unionizing to guard sufferers’ rights and affected person security, and but, all of the whereas, industrial medical health insurance business income have reached report highs. And their monetary product divisions proceed to put money into portfolios that don’t have anything to do with well being care.
By each measurement and metric, over the previous 40 years, the industrial medical health insurance business has prompted preventable hurt and loss of life — deliberately, for revenue. And nonetheless, Appleby suggests it’s the fault of sufferers that they can’t afford medical care? What, particularly, does Appleby recommend sufferers like Retton “do better?”
It’s time to start reporting responsibly and precisely about statewide single-payer resolutions and laws throughout the United States and the nationwide (improved) Medicare for All Act of 2023-24 on the federal stage.
Commercial medical health insurance isn’t well being care.
— Kimberly J. Soenen, govt director of Some People and managing editor of The Fine Print, Grand Marais, Minnesota
This article drew swift consideration on social media. Here’s a sampling of readers’ posts on X, reacting each to the KFF Health News and NPR variations:
Retton didn’t have insurance coverage as a result of premiums had been too excessive. She has insurance coverage now; so do tens of millions of different Texans. That’s the story right here, not that she didn’t exactly clarify the ranking dynamics of a non-compliant setting.https://t.co/EnzjyACn2v https://t.co/SBFSzVNe4Q
— Greg Fann (Pro-compliance Health Actuary) (@greg_fann) January 14, 2024
— Greg Fann, Temecula, California
I’m glad NPR highlighted this. Don’t know if Retton is ignorant or MAGA. Shame on @TODAYshow and @hodakotb for not utilizing this to tell their viewers that preexisting situations aren’t a problem with the #ACA. Premiums will be $0. https://t.co/Rkl4WVG5wO
— Jody Johnson (@jodywayzata) January 13, 2024
— Jody Johnson, Dallas
I do know too properly {the marketplace} well being rip-off that leaves so many people with out insurance coverage. I’ve a hard and fast earnings of $29,000. With a bronze-level plan, which means a $10,000 deductible, and $473 per 30 days for premiums. Are you calling this reasonably priced? The truth I’m paying $10,000 earlier than my insurance coverage kicks in, plus month-to-month premiums, it’s $15,000 out-of-pocket — a pocket I don’t have until I’m homeless. This is the rip-off.
— Brenda Frantz, Hinesville, Georgia
Yep. Mary Lou Retton’s clarification for why she did not have medical health insurance did not go the sniff check: https://t.co/AieiuAzD7n by way of @kffhealthnews
— Victoria Colliver (@vcolliver) January 12, 2024
— Victoria Colliver, Oakland, California
Orthopedic surgical procedures??So gymnastics is unhealthy?https://t.co/ki3qRbF7O2
— Lance Cross (@Tea4gunsSC2) January 14, 2024
— Lance Cross, Carta Valley, Texas