Help me debunk this LTE

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

Talk about the consumer protections ..

Talk about Choice

Talk about how we are rationed currently

Talk about how prices will drop for everyone
by increasing competition

That there hasn't been a bill passed yet. We do not know details. But we do know that it was when Democrats were in the majority that Medicare and Social Security legislation was passed. In other words, why would the Democrats now do something that would hurt senior? It just doesn't make sense.

if a provider takes one form of medicare reimbursement - like the advantage plans, they must take ALL forms of medicare reimbursement. That means that the HHS can force them to do so. If they don't, they lose ALL medicare reimbursement. A hospital could not survive without it. It's been a goodly number of years since I left the business, but I don't think THAT much has changed.

And anyone with a Medicare Advantage policy would automatically be in the same Medicare system as everyone else (which, in fact, they already are), and Medicare will be strengthened in numbers while still providing at least the very same healthcare everyone was already receiving. The healthcare providers will be reimbursed as always -- it's the law. Atvantage is nothing more than a middle-man sucking up your tax dollars. I say, get it out of here.

page, it has good contact info as well as links for financial assistance

http://www.everettclinic.com/PatientResourceCenter/BillingInsurance.ashx?p=836


and here is The hope page

http://www.everettclinic.com/