Dems: We Won't Kill Medicare Advantage

“This hearing offers an excellent opportunity to reinforce for the Congress and the public the critical, value-enhanced health coverage private health plans provide to 8.3 million Americas,” said Scott Serota, president of the Blue Cross association.

Officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also praised the program.

When Stark asked Leslie Norwalk, acting CMS administrator, about the alleged overpayment issue, Norwalk said, “I wouldn’t call it an overpayment. I would call it a payment for added benefits.”

But Medicare advisory commission officials said there are few incentives for efficiency in the Medicare Advantage program.

“Although Medicare Advantage uses ‘bidding’ as the means of determining plan payments and beneficiary premiums, the bids are against benchmarks which are often legislatively set,” said Mark Miller, the commission’s executive director.

“Private insurers are among the least efficient vehicles to provide better benefits to people with Medicare,” said another witness, Robert Hayes, president, of the Medicare Rights Center, New York. “These overpayments to for-profit health plans should be re-directed to provide low and middle income people with Medicare protection against unaffordable out-of-pocket expenses whether they enroll in traditional Medicare or in a for-profit insurance plan.”

But Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., noted that only 4,922 Medicare beneficiaries are members of the traditional Medicare program in his state, and that they save only $57.87 a month.

Norwalk argued that basic Medicare benefits for North Dakota citizens should improve, because the program has been growing since 2003, when changes in the Medicare program designed to better serve rural areas were launched.