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Senior advocates say new draft guide to Medicare distorts facts. Here's what you need to know
Medicare & You is the government’s seminal guide to all things Medicare, and is a primary resource used by consumers in each year’s annual enrollment season beginning Oct. 15. As such, it is or should be the gold standard of reliable information for more than 65 million people already enrolled in Medicare and the millions of people who newly enroll each year.
According to three leading senior advocacy groups, however, the 2019 draft version of Medicare & You has unfairly tilted the playing field. After reviewing the draft, the three groups – the Center for Medicare Advocacy, Justice in Aging, and the Medicare Rights Center – said it contained false statements that appear designed to convince people that private Medicare Advantage (MA) insurance plans are superior to original Medicare.
In several comparative discussions of the two approaches to Medicare, CMS downplays the possible shortcomings of getting care from a limited network of health providers in an MA plan, which involve not only a limited number of providers but also geographic limitations of where a plan provides coverage. At the same time, the draft handbook fails to emphasize that users of original Medicare can use any Medicare-licensed providers anywhere in the nation.
Medicare & You is the government’s seminal guide to all things Medicare, and is a primary resource used by consumers in each year’s annual enrollment season beginning Oct. 15. As such, it is or should be the gold standard of reliable information for more than 65 million people already enrolled in Medicare and the millions of people who newly enroll each year.
According to three leading senior advocacy groups, however, the 2019 draft version of Medicare & You has unfairly tilted the playing field. After reviewing the draft, the three groups – the Center for Medicare Advocacy, Justice in Aging, and the Medicare Rights Center – said it contained false statements that appear designed to convince people that private Medicare Advantage (MA) insurance plans are superior to original Medicare.
In several comparative discussions of the two approaches to Medicare, CMS downplays the possible shortcomings of getting care from a limited network of health providers in an MA plan, which involve not only a limited number of providers but also geographic limitations of where a plan provides coverage. At the same time, the draft handbook fails to emphasize that users of original Medicare can use any Medicare-licensed providers anywhere in the nation.
