Please share your personal experience to help the media and policymakers understand the importance of your coordinated healthcare services.
It's important to me and millions of other Americans that Medicare Advantage programs remain the same
“I suffer from COPD and take a lot of medicine. I also need to go to the doctor routinely to manage my disease. It's important to me and millions of other Americans that Medicare Advantage programs remain the same. We need their comprehensive services and accountable care organizations to stay affordable. Please do your very best to see that these programs are supported and allowed to remain affordable.”
We seniors are worried and angry
“My husband and I are in our eighties and we have Medicare Advantage which is a great program for seniors to keep us well with preventive exams. This saves many expensive hospital costs as our primary care doctor takes good care of us and only sends us to specialists when he feels it necessary! We are most happy with Medicare Advantage and thousands of seniors agree!! Do not take away this blanket of security in our "Golden Years"! This health care is being too rushed and members of House & Senate must fight for the elderly!! PLEASE do not pass this bill gutting Medicare. It's not right or fair. We seniors are worried and angry. Thanks for viewing this-I sincerely hope so!!!”
Eliminating Medicare Advantage Plans only lowers quality healthcare
“My Medicare Advantage Health Plan provides me with quality care. For a reasonable fee I am able to receive the care I would not have available to me if my only option were the basic Medicare plan provided by the government. Eliminating Medicare Advantage Plans only lowers quality healthcare.”
My Medicare Advantage plan has allowed me to receive excellent care
“My Medicare Advantage plan has allowed me to receive excellent care through a difficult bout of cancer and eight years of treatment and follow up. I have nothing but praise for the coordination that went on with all of the doctors involved.”
Please vote to keep Medicare Advantage
“Medicare Advantage is very helpful to my wife and I and we use it for preventive measures to keep us healthy. So far Medicare Advantage plans have kept us healthy. Please vote to keep Medicare Advantage.”
Medicare Advantage provides efficient preventive care to seniors
“Medicare Advantage provides efficient preventive care to seniors and by its very nature reduces cost to the taxpayer. Just because it is difficult to prove that outcomes are statistically better than might otherwise be the case does not trump the obvious.
Preventive care and the tests that support it have prevented me from contracting colon cancer, has brought my blood pressure under control by the use of cheap generic drugs, and presumably prevented heart attack or stroke, and has diagnosed prostate cancer at an early point in its progression that allows for successful treatment. I can't believe that we are contemplating eliminating this cost saving method. Because my premiums are low I can afford to use the system to maximum beneficial result, both financial for taxpayer, and me and medically for me.”
Please do not take away our Medicare
“Please do not take away our Medicare, I will be 65 in a couple months, and I so look forward to some help in this area. All expenses come out of my pocket and it financially empties me. We who are elderly need Medicare and all Americans need good ongoing, easy to access health care, there are other ways that it can be "fixed" we are Americans and we want good, decent and fair health care. This is not a socialist country; we appreciate and enjoy our rights and freedoms.”
ACOs have provided cutting edge medical care
“ACOs such as Primary Care Associates Medical Group in San Diego County have provided cutting edge medical care in conjunction with financial accountability that has enabled us to control the cost of the health care we provide without sacrificing access to specialty care or any medically necessary service.”
These programs are efficient, high quality, and cost-effective
“How can you be for healthcare reform and vote to eliminate Medicare Advantage programs? These programs are efficient, high quality, and cost-effective. Bring all Medicare up to their standards. Do not let us down.”
It would be devastating to...us if this proposed bill passes.
“My husband, my son and I all have Medicare. My son is 45 years old with Down Syndrome and is paralyzed from T-4 down. We all rely on Medicare. All three of us have Medicare Supplement Insurance. My husband and I are both senior citizens and worry about the quality of health care for our son and ourselves under this new "Health Care" bill. It would be devastating to all three of us if this proposed bill passes. We are totally against this bill and wish to voice our opinion as many other seniors and disabled individuals have. I am sure that the President would not wish for any of his loved ones to not get all the care necessary even if they are disabled or seniors. My suggestion is that if this is a good program for us, then everyone in the Federal Government, including the President, our Senators and Congress members should also be enrolled in this program. Let's see what they would say?”
We need to keep the plan we have now
“I am appalled to hear that or government wants to make these cuts in health care for seniors. We need to keep the plan we have now. Please don't cut our access to specialists and cut medical procedures that save and enhance or lives. Without these Medicare Advantage plans we have no prescription drug coverage at all! And I know you are aware of costs for medications. Would you take these things from you own families? Or take the same health care you are proposing to give us. Seniors are not throw away people! And we deserve the best health care available! I am appalled at these proposals and pretty sure that anyone who votes for these cuts will loose thousands of votes in upcoming elections”
Please leave these plans out your reform.
“Medicare Advantage plans help low income seniors who do not qualify for public assistance and yet can't afford to pay for high cost supplements. Medicare Advantage plans help these seniors by providing more coverage that Medicare for a low monthly premium. Without these plans, we would have a sicker elderly population and more stress on our already "taxed" health care system. Please leave these plans out your reform.”
We senior citizens are depending on you to help us survive.
“Please do not cut the Medicare Advantage Plan. I am a widow living on Social Security. With the cost of "everything" on the raise it is very difficult to make a check extend from one month to the next. We senior citizens are depending on you to help us survive.”
Please don't make changes without thinking through unintended consequences.
“My husband, age 84, and myself, age 75, are healthy, travel, and volunteer for various groups, mainly because we have been receiving medical care through Medicare Advantage for a number of years. We do not want to change doctors. Please don't make changes without thinking through unintended consequences.”
Please do not dismantle the whole program!
“My wife and I have been enrolled in a Medicare advantage program (Secure Horizons) for several years. We have been extremely satisfied with the program and have not had any refusals of care or increases in out of pocket co pays. If there are problems with the program, fix those problems, but please do not dismantle the whole program!”
Medicare Advantage must be preserved.
“If President Obama is telling the truth when he says "if you're happy with your present insurance, you can keep it," Medicare Advantage must be preserved. I am a Medicare Advantage patient, have had a very good experience with the Medicare Advantage program and certainly want to keep it.”
We deserve to have decent and affordable health coverage
“I am currently covered by a Medicare Advantage plan, and the coverage that I receive under this plan is great. If I had to go to the traditional Medicare coverage, I could not afford to receive the tests and treatment that I currently receive under this plan. Under the healthcare reform act no-one discusses what is going to happen to seniors and the disabled. We keep hearing about that Medicare is going bankrupt and it needs to be fixed, but they don't say how it will affect us, are we going to have to pay more out of our pockets to receive care. For years seniors and the disabled went without tests and treatment under the traditional Medicare plan, simply because they could not afford it, because of the out of pocket expenses that they incurred. Traditional Medicare coverage is lousy, it puts more of the cost on its' recipients than it covers. Let's face it we are on a fixed income and our money can only stretch so far. Please keep this coverage for seniors and the disabled Americans, for we deserve to have decent and affordable health coverage like everyone else.”
Please do not take this benefit away
“So many seniors depend on Medicare Advantage for their continuing well-being. With their very limited fixed income, it is so important that costs be maintained at lower rates. My grandmother's insurance premiums keep going up, and it is getting harder and harder for her to pay for little things like electricity and food. Please do not take this benefit away from her.”
I urge you to refrain from budget cuts
“As a concerned Registered Nurse, I urge you to refrain from budget cuts which would affect our Medicare Advantage/ACO plans which offer affordable and accessible healthcare to our seniors. Under an ACO, our seniors are not only provided cost-effective comprehensive medical care, they also receive preventative care, chronic disease management programs, vision, hearing, mental health, dental, prescriptions and fitness programs.”
I would not be here today if I had not had the Advantage plan that allowed me to choose the doctors and hospitals
“ I am very thankful for the Medicare Advantage plan I am on. It helped save my life.
I would not be here today if I had not had the Advantage plan that allowed me to choose the doctors and hospitals, along with the speed in which I received a diagnosis and surgery. I had lung cancer. I never smoked in my life. I have always tried to live a healthy life. So the only preventive medicine here was an annual checkup with x-ray my doctor insisted on giving me.
I am free of Cancer and did not need other treatment besides surgery. It was caught in stage one and I am a Cancer survivor of two years. Thanks to God and to my doctors.
Please don't take away the opportunity that allows seniors to have these Advantage plans. We too are human and should be considered the same as others and not discriminated against because we are older.
I have worked for almost 30 years and raised four productive children. I feel I have contributed.”
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Coordinated Care Facts
In 2007, Medicare Advantage saved seniors nearly $90 per month or $1000 per year in out of pocket costs. An estimated savings of approximately $7 billion annually. Additionally, compared to traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans can reduce out-of-pocket costs by up to $4,000 annually for patients with the highest healthcare needs.
- Comprehensive Care: Patients receive integrated treatment plans, and expert case management and disease prevention strategies for the chronically ill.
- Cost-Effective Care: Integrated medical groups are able to support investments in advanced healthcare information technology, tracking patient follow-through on treatment plans and patient outcomes, and helping to uncover health problems before they become catastrophic.
- Accessible Care: Efficiencies within the coordinated care delivery model mean better healthcare for more seniors, including:
• lower out-of-pocket costs
• increased health services such as dental care, vision care and preventive care
• reduced hospitalizations
• increased prescription coverage
• higher overall satisfaction rates
• greater value for the premium dollar than any other healthcare delivery system
What’s At Risk
If Medicare reforms dismantle incentives for coordinated care, seniors will experience significant increases in out of pocket costs - at a time when many seniors have seen their retirement account’s decline by over 40 percent in value — and decreased quality of healthcare.
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