It's not only insurers that are against the proposed Medicare Advantage cuts. Seniors and political groups also are taking action to urge the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to forgo the 2.2 percent cuts to Medicare Advantage insurers.
Roughly 40,000 seniors have flooded lawmakers, pleading with them to reduce or cancel proposed cuts to the Medicare Advantage program after America's Health Insurance Plans launched a widespread campaign against the cuts, according to an AHIP statement.
With just a few weeks left before the cuts are finalized on April 1, AHIP said Medicare Advantage members are calling, writing and meeting with their Congressional members, asking them to persuade HHS to stop the cuts.
And now a conservative political group, Freedom Works, has joined the movement. The prominent Tea Party group launched an online ad that claims the cuts will force up to 5 million seniors to lose their Medicare Advantage coverage, reported The Hill's Healthwatch.
The ad features Medicare Advantage members Rosemarie and Ray Battaglia who say they are concerned about paying for their insurance. "I don't know how we could plan ahead for something we didn't foresee," Rosemarie says in the ad. "It's like making you a promise and then going back on it."
Last week, a bipartisan group of almost 100 House members wrote to HHS, requesting the agency drop the cuts and reconsider certain assumptions made within its proposal to decrease payments per person for Medicare Advantage plans.
To learn more:
- here's the AHIP statement
- read The Hill's Healthwatch article