Tag: Urban Institute

Uncle Sam Wants You … to Help Stop Insurers’ Bogus Medicare Advantage Sales Tactics

By Susan Jaffe, KHN  | November 30, 2023 | This story also ran on  

People gathered at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in July protested denials and delays in private Medicare Advantage plans. (Alex Wong/Getty Image)

After an unprecedented crackdown on misleading advertising claims by insurers selling private Medicare Advantage and drug plans, the Biden administration hopes to unleash a special weapon to make sure companies follow the new rules: you.

Officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are encouraging seniors and other members of the public to become fraud detectives by reporting misleading or deceptive sales tactics to 800-MEDICARE, the agency’s 24-hour information hotline. Suspects include postcards designed to look like they’re from the government and TV ads with celebrities promising benefits and low fees that are available only to some people in certain counties.

The new rules, which took effect Sept. 30, close some loopholes in existing requirements by describing what insurers can say in ads and other promotional materials as well as during the enrollment process. [Continued on Kaiser Health News and NPR]…

Medicare for All scrutinised in Democratic primaries

Volume 395       Number 10225     29 February 2020                          
WORLD REPORT  On March 3, 14 states will pick their nominees for the US presidential election. The feasability of a single payer insurance plan is a key issue. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.
Anxiety about rising health-care costs— the top issue for Democratic voters, according to recent polls—propelled Bernie Sanders to the head of the pack in last week’s Democratic primary contest in Nevada. Of the six leading candidates vying for the party’s presidential nomination, Sanders, a Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist, has proposed the most radical solution for lowering medical bills and reaching universal coverage. His signature policy initiative, the Medicare for All single-payer programme, would eliminate private health insurance, including employment-based plans that cover about half of the US population. [Article compares Medicare for All and the public option proposal favoured by former Vice President Joe Biden; continued here]
…

Prospects for US single-payer national health care

 Volume 392, Number 10149   

1 September 2018

 

WORLD REPORT   The single-payer national health-care bill, so-called Medicare for All, is gaining momentum with the public but is stalling in Congress. Susan Jaffe, The Lancet‘s Washington correspondent, reports.

Instead of fading away into legislative oblivion, some Democrats campaigning for congressional seats and candidates for state offices are supporting the Medicare for All bill—or some variation thereof—as the November election approaches. They are not alone: a Morning Consult/Politico national poll in June found that 63% of Americans support “a Medicare for All healthcare system, where all Americans would get their health insurance from the government”. [Continued here.]

 …