Medicare upgrades website
Help wanted: Overseers
WASHINGTON, Oct 2, (AP): Approaching annual sign-up season, Medicare is modernizing its website to make it more useful for beneficiaries already accustomed to searching online for insurers, hospitals and doctors, officials announced on Monday.
But some consumer advocates said the changes reflect a subtle bias toward private plans on the part of the Trump administration.
Medicare Administrator Seema Verma said new features include a five-point questionnaire to help seniors decide between original, government-run Medicare and private plans offered under Medicare Advantage, an online calculator to help estimate out-of-pocket costs, a webchat option and a simplified login. All are part of a continuing project to upgrade Medicare’s online presence.
The annual open enrollment for Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription plans starts Oct. 15 and runs through Dec 7. That’s a time to shop for new plans or switch coverage. Beneficiaries sign up initially when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.
“We always felt it’s important that every American we serve have a good customer experience,” Verma said. But some consumer groups said the new online features seem to portray Medicare Advantage plans more favorably than original Medicare.
More than 21 million beneficiaries - about 36 percent - are already in private Medicare Advantage plans, a growing share of the program. In exchange for limits on choice of doctors and hospitals, the private plans can offer lower out-of-pocket costs and added benefits. This year, some plans will start providing limited assistance to help keep frail seniors safe in their own homes instead of nursing homes.
Attorney David Lipschutz of the nonpartisan Center for Medicare Advocacy said that based on an initial review of the new online features, “it does appear that Medicare Advantage
governor of Tennessee who is now running for Senate against Republican Rep Marcia Blackburn. (AP)
Canada’s Quebec shifts right:
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Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, arrives at the Sayers Croft Forest School and Wildlife Garden at Paddington Recreation Ground, London. (AP)
continues to be painted in a light most favorable.” The center is a nonprofit legal organization that acts as a watchdog over the program and represents individual beneficiaries with consumer complaints.
Lipschutz pointed to the new five-point online questionnaire as potentially problematic. He said it overlooks some of the limitations of Medicare Advantage as well as reasons why seniors would want original Medicare.
Original Medicare has gaps in coverage and many beneficiaries buy supplemental “Medigap” polices to cover those, along with a private “Part D” prescription plan. For people in poor health, original Medicare preserves the broadest choice of hospitals and doctors. Coupled with a Medigap policy and a prescription plan, it can result in lower out-ofpocket costs for some people dealing with serious health conditions.
Also: WASHINGTON:
Key posts overseeing the financial health of Social Security and Medicare have been vacant for more than three years, leaving the programs without independent accountability in the face of dire predictions about approaching insolvency.
With Washington corroded by partisanship and consumed by political crises, gridlock has become the norm and hundreds of senior government jobs remain unfilled. For beneficiaries and taxpayers the lack of “public trustees” for Social Security and Medicare means a loss of outside supervision over bedrock middle-class programs.
Most Americans may not even realize there’s a role in government for public trustees of Social Security and Medicare, but insiders say the special advisers help keep annual financial reports honest by acting as a check on the ever-present temptation for political appointees to tweak the numbers.
centre-right Coalition Avenir Quebec is on track to win power for the first time in Canada’s Quebec province on Monday, dealing a blow to the Liberal incumbents and allowing the party to make good on its promises to curb immigration.
The business-friendly CAQ is expected to win a majority of seats in Canada’s second most populous province, according to early results from Elections Quebec and network projections.
“My team and I are very eager to get to work for you,” Legault said Monday night on Twitter.
The CAQ win would follow a shift to the right in Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government swept to power in June, ending 15 years of Liberal rule in Canada’s most populous province.
Quebec’s Liberals held power for 13 out of the last 15 years. (
Legault campaigned on a controversial plan to take in 10,000 fewer immigrants a year and to expel new residents who fail tests on French and Quebec values within three years.
“Quebecers have clearly indicated their desire for change,” Liberal leader and former Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said in a concession speech, adding that he would reflect on his political future.
Elections Quebec said the CAQ was ahead in 73 out of the 125 seats in the province’s legislature, with the Liberals in second place with 32 seats. (RTRS)