Medicare Advantage Plans Continue to Cost More Per Enrollee Than Traditional Medicare

A study published online finds that the private insurance companies that participate in Medicare under the Medicare Advantage program and its predecessors have cost the publicly funded program for the elderly and disabled an extra $282.6 billion since 1985, most of it over the past eight years. In 2012 alone, private insurers were overpaid $34.1 billion. That's wasted money that should have been spent on improving patient care, shoring up Medicare's trust fund, or reducing the federal deficit, the researchers say. The findings appear in an article published in the International Journal of Health Services by Drs. Ida Hellander, Steffie…

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