Help me debunk this LTE [View All]

Health-care reform could be a wonderful thing if it were done right. Unfortunately the plans on the table will leave thousands of Snohomish County seniors with insurance but no health care.

When the president talks about eliminating “unnecessary payments to insurance companies” he means eliminating Medicare Advantage. The Everett Clinic now requires Medicare patients to have one of four approved managed Medicare Advantage plans because they lose too much money on the miserly standard Medicare payment schedules and must shift costs to privately insured patients.

So, notwithstanding presidential blandishments to the contrary, I and many others who have paid into the Medicare Trust Fund our entire adult lives will lose our insurance and access to our doctors. For me that includes my oncologist.

The problem is systemic, not just local and others in other regions will face the same fate. The president wants to pilfer $500 billion from the Medicare Trust Fund (which is already in trouble) to pay for insurance for others and instead of the health care we seniors have already paid for, we get a bad check.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090819/OPINION02/708199966#Pilfering.Medicare.isn%26%23146t.the.answer