Reihan Salam has a nice post looking more closely at the cost of the current Medicare Advantage program and describing how premium support with competitive bidding in Medicare could work better to lower costs. He quotes Ezra Klein as saying competition hasn’t worked well to hold down costs in Medicare, and Reihan rightly points out that the way in which Medicare Advantage plans are paid by Medicare muddles this story. I would restate what Ezra said as private insurance options in Medicare have not worked well to hold down costs in Medicare. And it has everything to do with how Medicare Advantage plans are paid by Medicare.
Continue reading “Updating private insurance options in Medicare”