The health insurance industry is setting
up new sales territories and blitzing seniors with television ads as
they market private Medicare Advantage plans in more U.S. counties than
ever despite the threat of Democrats to put them out of business.
In the last week, several pollsters showing the
majority of Americans wanting Donald Trump to
face an impeachment inquiry
are also showing U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders well
ahead of the President should he face either in the general election
next November 2020.
A Fox News poll last week
had Warren leading Trump 50% to 40% in a head-to-head general election
matchup. Both Warren and Sanders favor a single payer version of
expanded Medicare coverage for all Americans that would uproot the role
of private insurers.
But Warren’s potential to challenge Trump should he be the Republican
presidential nominee is becoming more real as some new polls of
Democratic voters for their party’s nomination
show her in a tight race with Joe Biden.
The former Vice President is a supporter of privatized Medicare
Advantage, which grew in the eight years of the Barack Obama White House
thanks in part to new benefits under the Affordable Care Act. New
regulations under Trump have allowed private insurers to flourish even
more with the ability to sell more supplemental benefits.
Analysts say insurers are looking at the broader picture showing
regulations favoring a private health plan’s participation in
practically all areas of government-subsidized health benefit
administration from Medicare and Medicaid to subsidized commercial
coverage under the ACA.
“Aside from single payer, most health reform proposals revolve around
broad eligibility for coverage in a regulated and subsidized
direct-to-consumer market, so it makes sense that insurers are
increasingly eager to participate in real-world opportunities like
Medicare Advantage and the individual market,” says
Kathy Hempstead, senior policy advisor at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “There may be a sense that this is where the puck is going.”
This month, insurers are ramping up marketing and announcing their
expansions in new regions ahead of the annual open enrollment period
when seniors eligible for Medicare can choose new benefits or stay with
their existing plans. Such changes can be made during
Medicare’s open enrollment, which begins this Tuesday, Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 7.
Already this month, major health insurers including Cigna and
UnitedHealth Group have announced they are launching unprecedented
expansions into new regions of the country to sell Medicare Advantage
plans. Other insurers including CVS Health’s Aetna, Centene and Humana
are also launching major expansions of Medicare Advantage products.
There will be about “1,200 more Medicare Advantage plans operating in
2020 than in 2018,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
said last month. “The average number of Medicare Advantage plan choices
per county will increase from about 33 plans in 2019 to 39 plans in
2020. This represents an increase of 49% since 2017.”
Insurers are taking advantage of new rules that allow Medicare
Advantage plans to offer more benefits to seniors. Medicare Advantage
plans contract with the federal government to provide extra benefits and
services to seniors, such as disease management and nurse help hotlines
with some also offering vision, dental care and wellness programs.
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans surpassed 22 million in 2018,
which is 35% of total Medicare beneficiaries. Given the rule changes,
one analyst — L.E.K. Consulting — has projected enrollment of seniors in
private Medicare Advantage plans could reach 70% of those eligible for
federal health benefits for the elderly between 2030 and 2040.
UnitedHealth Group, which has already clashed publicly with Sanders
over single payer, said it will expand its Medicare Advantage health
plan offerings to seniors in 100 new counties next year to reach an
additional 1.2 million people. UnitedHealth will offer Medicare
Advantage in 47 states in 2020, up from 45.
UnitedHealth, which is the nation’s largest insurer, currently sells
individual Medicare Advantage plans in more than 1,700 counties but that
will grow to more than 1,800, the insurer said. The insurer has new ads
running across the country.
“In 2020, 90% of people eligible for Medicare will have a choice of
UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans, nationwide,” the company said
earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Anthem said its “affiliated health plans” will offer
Medicare Advantage plans in 77 new counties for 2020. “These health
plans currently sell Medicare Advantage plans in more than 850 counties
and that will grow to nearly 950 counties in 2020, across 14 blue states
and other affiliated plans,” Anthem said. And Cigna said its Medicare
Advantage health maintenance organization plans in 2020 will be in 303
counties, 37 of which are new with the expansion,” a Cigna spokeswoman
said. “We were in 266 counties before expansion.”
With the increased competition, premiums are expected to be lower in
many areas of the country, the Trump administration has said.
“These dramatically lower costs in Medicare Advantage and Part D,
thanks to President Trump’s leadership, means that we are putting
dollars back into the pockets of our seniors,” CMS Administrator Seema
Verma said last month. “On the contrast, proposals for more government
through Medicare for All or a public option, would only harm the
progress we have made to protect and strengthen the Medicare program for
future generations.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2019/10/13/as-elizabeth-warren-rises-insurers-tighten-grip-on-medicare/#529dcb0527f9
