Sic Elon & Vivek on Sick VA-Medicare Scam?

Elon & Vivek might start waste cutting here: Medicare Advantage insurers collected billions for Veterans who were already getting free medical care from taxpayer funded VA & never used the Medicare option also funded by you know you.

Sick, no? Yet, a WSJ analysis of Medicare & VA data found that “Medicare Advantage insurers collected billions of dollars a year in premiums to provide medical coverage for about one million veterans … even though they go to the VA for some or all of their healthcare needs.” How much exactly are we talking about? An estimated “$44 billion from 2018 through 2021,” the newspaper claims. The defenders of the dual coverage “system” remind that “veterans earned” the right to choose the extra health care providers that Medicare can give them. Yet, does that mean taxpayers should be on the hook for services never rendered, while the premium pay outs keep piling up and into the pockets of Medicare insurers who basically stand there and watch the paint dry?

Another defense of this rip off, er, system noted by the WSJ, is that Medicare Advantage supposedly gives vets important “extra benefits” like “dental and eye care” coverage. But, that’s a crock of used bandages, too. As a Medicare Advantage customer myself for over 5 years now, I can attest that the MA dental and eye care coverages I’ve seen suck aka are virtually worthless. The so-called dental coverage I’ve been offered pays for only a portion of a small percentage of most procedures often needed, and then, only after going through red tape the Pentagon itself would call ridiculous. Ditto for the eye care “plans” I’ve seen that pay out about the same amount of money you’d be charged if you simply tell the eye care retailer “I don’t have insurance so give me the 50% discount you advertise.” Elon, Vivek … sic!

Davd Soul