Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said President Joe Biden put Medicare Advantage on the chopping block. Health care policy experts said it's a mischaracterization of changes that will help the government recoup overpayments to private insurers.
Experts said they would not characterize the rule change as a"cut."
"My read of the evidence is that reductions in payments to Medicare Advantage plans are largely borne by the plans themselves, either through lower profits or cost reductions," said Matthew Fiedler, a senior fellow with the University of Southern California-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy.from Avalere, a health care consulting company, found that the rule change could result in beneficiaries facing higher costs or fewer plan options or benefits.
Antos said he did not expect drastic cost increases or benefit reductions that would encourage enrollees to turn to non-Medicare Advantage plans.that the other proposed 2024 updates to the way Medicare Advantage insurers will be paid will result in about a 3% reduction in payments to Medicare Advantage insurers in 2024. But the agency said that other modifications to the Medicare Advantage program would offset that reduction and yield a 1% increase in spending per person in 2024.
The proposed 2024 adjustments are not a cut, but are part of"the routine annual process of implementing the law as far as how Medicare Advantage plans are paid," the University of Southern California’s Ginsburg said.Experts said Cotton likely was referring to a recent rule change that allows the government to recover overpayments to insurers and is expected to reduce insurers’ profits. Those companies might, in turn, raise enrollees’ out-of-pocket costs or reduce benefits.
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