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March 06, 2007 at 12:03 PM
The most senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee warned Tuesday that he believes House Democrats will soon try to eliminate the Medicare Advantage program.
Private insurers work through the program to sell Medicare health maintenance organizations and some Medicare preferred provider plans and private fee-for-service plans.
Congress set up the program in the 1990s as an alternative to the traditional, government-run Medicare fee-for-service program.
Democrats will try to eliminate the Medicare Advantage program because they are “eager to deny the role that markets can play in offering improved medical care at a lower cost,” Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., writes in a memo to House Republican members and staffers.
The chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recently told the House Ways and Means Committee that Medicare Advantage plans receive higher per-patient payments than traditional fee-for-service Medicare plans.
