Delaware’s public retirees must reject Medicate Advantage plan

State of Delaware retirees, retired Delaware teachers, as well as college and university faculty covered through the state of Delaware’s health benefits must act immediately and let their state elected officials know that the proposed move of all these retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan is unacceptable. 

What are Medicare Advantage plans?  In short, they represent the privatization of one of the most successful federal programs in history and it is an embarrassment that the state of Delaware wants to participate in undermining the traditional Medicare program. Unfortunately, unless you are close to retirement, you are probably unaware as to how this change might affect you. Medicare Advantage plans move you out of the traditional Medicare program and allow a private company to oversee your medical care. It is not simply an insurance change.  It is a program change into privatized medical care. Although Medicare Advantage plans tout many “extras,” compared to traditional Medicare, you are giving up the rights encoded in the federal program for a contract negotiated every couple of years. What you have now may not be in the next contract. The lack of transparency in the transition process to these plans is not uncommon.  New York City retirees filed a class action law suit to prevent the change and received a stay of implementation until the issue could be fully vetted. 

A recent article published by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) shows that Medicare Advantage plans, because they have requirements for pre-authorization of services, have a 13% higher rate of denial of services than regular Medicare.

This is because the company receiving the premiums paid is both the provider of the services as well as arbiter of whether those services are to be provided. This is like a fox guarding a hen house. This fact is one of many that has triggered an U.S. Inspector General audit of some of these programs. However, as these Medicare Advantage programs continue to expand, Medicare may lack the ability to monitor these programs.