[StBernard] Important information for seniors/healthcare

[Westley Annis]

Jim,

I agree with you here.  No, Westley knows which of his posters my comment
was aimed at :-) 

John

-----Original Message-----
Now who you calling a liberal, pseudo-intellect John?  Not moi!  :-)

You can call me an independent.

However, please see this article from the Wall Street Journal:

http://tinyurl.com/ck5z32

I have no problem with this part of the plan:



Medicare Advantage: Democrats have been vocal critics of these private plans
within Medicare, claiming they're taxpayer-subsidized profit centers
<http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/12/11/private-medicare-advantage-plans-tak
e-heat-for-profits/>  for insurers. Payments to the plans, set by a formula,
have been on average 14% higher than what the government typically spends
per patient.

The administration is expected to proposed cutting federal payments to
insurers that run the plans by requiring them to competitively bid to offer
plans. The government would pay them based on an average of the bids, saving
$177 billion over 10 years, the WSJ explains
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123560916922977285.html> . Some of the
biggest players in the market are UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Coventry
Health Care. 


I'm not a big fan of this plan of his because it does nothing but support
the insurance industry and big Pharma.  That's why I was kind of tickled
with the results tonight of the MA race.  Scott Brown won in MA because of
the large number of Independents that voted for him.  And the independents
are going to be the key to what happens in 2010 and 2012.

JY