Readers Weigh Downsides of Medicare Benefit and Stick Up for Mary Lou Retton

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Letters to the Editor is a periodic characteristic. We welcome all feedback and can publish a variety. We edit for size and readability and require full names.

In response to Sarah Jane Tribble’s report about rising enrollment in Medicare Benefit plans — and the rising issues — a senior coverage adviser on the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis weighed in on X, previously often known as Twitter:

Managed care backlash in full swing as extra customers turn out to be conscious of the tradeoffs concerned selecting M.A. https://t.co/7EAMZJ9YJk

— Katherine Hempstead (@khemp64) January 8, 2024

— Katherine Hempstead, Princeton, New Jersey

Medicare Benefit: To Whose Benefit?

Sarah Jane Tribble did a superb job reporting on Medicare Benefit plans and the main limitations inside them that go away folks principally screwed (“Older Individuals Say They Really feel Trapped in Medicare Benefit Plans,” Jan. 5).

Don’t neglect presidential hopeful Nikki Haley at one of many Republican debates acknowledged that Medicare Benefit plans are what the vast majority of seniors need and needs to be expanded.

That subsequent morning, I instantly known as the South Carolina Democratic Social gathering and supplied that they need to be standing on their desks demonizing her as a result of they know full properly that low-income, underserved Black folks in South Carolina rural ZIP codes wouldn’t be eligible for Benefit plans the place care is linked to ZIP code.

Disgrace on all events and candidates who by no means point out single-payer common well being care (except Inexperienced Social gathering candidates).

Excellent news story, Ms. Tribble.

— Steve Scuderi, Chicago

A well being providers researcher within the Division of Well being Coverage at Vanderbilt College additionally praised the article on social media:

This piece is REALLY nice (thanks, @sjtribble!). We’re engaged on a grant associated to this matter now (thanks, @LLSusa!) and can’t emphasize sufficient how vital this challenge is for folks getting old into Medicare. https://t.co/lQqFsnUfp9

— Stacie Dusetzina (@DusetzinaS) January 5, 2024

— Stacie Dusetzina, Nashville, Tennessee

The founder and president of Healthcare Navigation, a consultancy, added recommendation for medical health insurance buyers on X:

Beneficiaries who initially enroll in conventional Medicare are assured to qualify for a Medigap coverage with out pricing based mostly on their medical historical past.Discover out extra right here: https://t.co/agG9VH8Hxo pic.twitter.com/pmnq9eDYAQ

— Maura Carley (@MauraCarley) January 20, 2024

— Maura Carley, Darien, Connecticut

Don’t Blame Sufferers for Unaffordable Well being Care

This op-ed (not article) by KFF Well being Information reporter Julie Appleby shames the previous Olympic athlete for her monetary misery and for being unable to handle her funds and well being — whereas sick, injured, or chronically disabled (“Mary Lou Retton’s Clarification of Well being Insurance coverage Takes Some Somersaults,” Jan. 12).

The writing implies that an American shopper or citizen generally is a very “profitable individual in your different life” however “not perceive American well being care” and that monetary misery might have been prevented if solely Mary Lou Retton had been extra assertive, knowledgeable, and clever.

Appleby states that “Retton excelled in touchdown troublesome strikes as a gymnast, however she might have missed the bar when it got here to purchasing insurance coverage protection.”

This notion — particularly amongst well being journalists and newsrooms overlaying the well being care mannequin within the U.S. — that business medical health insurance ensures entry to well being care, or that the Reasonably priced Care Act is reasonably priced and ensures entry — is a false one. ACA plans are largely managed by personal business medical health insurance firms. The trade enterprise mannequin is “Denial of Care.” That’s how insurers ship returns on funding to shareholders 12 months after 12 months, quarter after quarter, and revenue from sickness, harm, incapacity, and loss of life. This mannequin as of right now continues to be authorized. And, with PxDx software program and synthetic intelligence, firms are actually denying medical care claims at a charge of 100 per 1.2 seconds.

To counsel paying for business medical health insurance guarantees medical care is editorially irresponsible. To counsel a citizen was not clever sufficient to navigate the barbaric and merciless business medical health insurance trade’s non-system of well being care is reprehensible and repugnant. The one one who “missed the bar” was Appleby and her misinformed editors.

KFF Well being Information has been partnering with NPR and CBS for practically seven years on the “Invoice of the Month” collection. Throughout that point, doctor suicide has reached file highs, medical employee strikes have hit file highs, medical invoice bankruptcies have reached file highs, medical residents throughout the nation are unionizing to guard sufferers’ rights and affected person security, and but, all of the whereas, business medical health insurance trade income have reached file highs. And their monetary product divisions proceed to put money into portfolios that don’t have anything to do with well being care.

By each measurement and metric, over the previous 40 years, the business medical health insurance trade has precipitated preventable hurt and loss of life — deliberately, for revenue. And nonetheless, Appleby suggests it’s the fault of sufferers that they can not afford medical care? What, particularly, does Appleby counsel sufferers like Retton “do higher?”

It’s time to start reporting responsibly and precisely about statewide single-payer resolutions and laws throughout the US and the nationwide (improved) Medicare for All Act of 2023-24 on the federal stage.

Industrial medical health insurance shouldn’t be well being care.

— Kimberly J. Soenen, government director of Some Folks and managing editor of The Effective Print, Grand Marais, Minnesota

This text drew swift consideration on social media. Right here’s a sampling of readers’ posts on X, reacting each to the KFF Well being Information and NPR variations:

Retton didn’t have insurance coverage as a result of premiums had been too excessive. She has insurance coverage now; so do thousands and thousands of different Texans. That’s the story right here, not that she didn’t exactly clarify the score dynamics of a non-compliant surroundings.https://t.co/EnzjyACn2v https://t.co/SBFSzVNe4Q

— Greg Fann (Professional-compliance Well being Actuary) (@greg_fann) January 14, 2024

— Greg Fann, Temecula, California

I’m glad NPR highlighted this. Don’t know if Retton is ignorant or MAGA. Disgrace on ⁦@TODAYshow⁩ and ⁦@hodakotb⁩ for not utilizing this to tell their viewers that preexisting situations aren’t a problem with the #ACA. Premiums could be $0. https://t.co/Rkl4WVG5wO

— Jody Johnson (@jodywayzata) January 13, 2024

— Jody Johnson, Dallas

I do know too properly {the marketplace} well being rip-off that leaves so many people with out insurance coverage. I’ve a hard and fast revenue of $29,000. With a bronze-level plan, meaning a $10,000 deductible, and $473 per 30 days for premiums. Are you calling this reasonably priced? The very fact I’m paying $10,000 earlier than my insurance coverage kicks in, plus month-to-month premiums, it’s $15,000 out-of-pocket — a pocket I don’t have until I’m homeless. That is the rip-off.

— Brenda Frantz, Hinesville, Georgia

Yep. Mary Lou Retton’s rationalization for why she did not have medical health insurance did not go the sniff take a look at: https://t.co/AieiuAzD7n by way of @kffhealthnews

— Victoria Colliver (@vcolliver) January 12, 2024

— Victoria Colliver, Oakland, California