Health Care BS

Talleyrand is credited with originating the phrase, “It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder.” One could hardly find a more apt expression to describe the MA marketing strategies of Humana, United Healthcare, et al. As I pointed out last March, this scandal is very real. Now, seven companies have been forced to stop marketing Medicare Advantage plans:

Seven insurance companies have agreed to stop marketing private Medicare plans temporarily amid complaints that agents used illegal or unethical sales tactics, Medicare officials announced yesterday.

The crime, of course, involved deceptive tactics used to sign up beneficiaries to various MA plans:

Congressional investigators said in hearings last month that some agents seeking to cash in on high commissions have enrolled the mentally incompetent, impersonated Medicare representatives and misrepresented provisions of the plans

The blunder was to squander the good will associated with a program that, as I discuss here, could have been exhibit A in the case for free-market Medicare reform.

This group of insurance companies has not only created an enormous amount of unnecessary ill will, they have given the advocates of government-run health care a club with which to beat free market reformers over the head.

Thanks, guys.