OPINION – Paradise Valley residents should not be fooled by the name Medicare Advantage. It is not Medicare, and it does not protect your health like real Medicare does.

Congress and George W. Bush enacted Medicare Advantage to give the insurance industry a piece of the senior healthcare pie, not because it provides better healthcare for seniors.

Seniors can sign up for Medicare Advantage, but understand that it is HMO health insurance issued by private insurance companies. They can deny treatment for pre-existing conditions, whereas real Medicare is mandated to give you all the treatment that you need. Often with Medicare Advantage, you must wait months while dealing with cancer to get your urgent chemotherapy or radiation approved, and if denied, you must spend more months appealing the decision. Medicare Advantage can also cut your coverage if you get too sick.

Medicare's administrative costs are 1% of its budget, as efficient as you can get. Conversely, for-profit insurers like Humana, Aetna and UnitedHealthcare pay millions in bonuses to their executives (the more care they deny or delay, the higher their profits, so the higher their  bonuses), do stock buybacks, and pay dividends to shareholders, which can be up to 20% of your premium. The DOJ has also sued UnitedHealthcare for fraud for billing the government for healthcare services that were excessive or unnecessary.

Ever wonder why Medicare Advantage runs so many expensive, folksy TV commercials? They are using your premium money to recruit new members, and by denying you coverage, they have more money for these expensive commercials.

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