Over 1 Million Florida Medicare Advantage Enrollees Face Benefit Cuts

David Hogberg from Investor’s Business Daily reports, “ObamaCare imposes major cuts on the popular Medicare Advantage program, and while the Obama administration has largely delayed them until after the election, Enrollees will lose an average $515 in benefits in 2013, according to an IBD analysis.”

“Some 14.4 million people are expected to enroll in Medicare Advantage in 2013, up from 13.1 million this year, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said Wednesday. Advantage plans are run by private firms, providing more benefits at a somewhat higher cost — usually 13% to 17% — to the government than traditional Medicare,” notes Hogberg.

eHealthMedicare.com provides the following statistics and facts about Medicare Advantage in the state of Florida.

Total Florida residents enrolled in Medicare Advantage: 1,065,247
Florida residents enrolled in Medicare Advantage HMOs: 762,528
FL residents enrolled in Medicare Advantage Local PPOs: 75,291
FL Medicare Advantage beneficiaries enrolled in Regional PPOs: 220,745
FL beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Part C PFFS Plans: 6,254
Enrolled in Florida Medicare Part C Cost Plans: 0
Enrolled in Other Florida Medicare Part C Plans: 429
2010 to 2011 FL Medicare Advantage Enrollment Change: 9%

Florida seniors constitute 7.6% of all Medicare Advantage members. They will lose big in 2013 and beyond because they chose Medicare Advantage plans.

According to Hogberg, “ObamaCare is expected to cut $308 billion from Advantage plans from 2013-22, based on calculations of Congressional Budget Office data. That’s a huge share of the more than $700 billion in total Medicare cuts to help pay for the exchange subsidies and other parts of ObamaCare … ObamaCare is supposed to cut about $10.9 billion from Advantage plans next year, according to the CBO. That will drop to about $7.4 billion — or $515 per enrollee — with the demonstration project offset.”

UPDATE:

This video by My Brain Shark helps explain how Medicare Advantage will be impacted: