Zero, zip, zilch – Allan Levene

While working through the ad. supplements in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thanksgiving edition on Thursday, I saw an ad. flyer entitled “Zero, zip, zilch.”

Although writing about ads. is something not appropriate for a campaign website, this one deserves comment. Why? Because it was about Medicare Advantage, a replacement of Medicare insurance coverage offered when a citizen qualifies for Medicare at sixty-five. I won’t discuss what Medicare is, as it’s well described here.

What interested me is that Humana, in this instance, was offering to provide and administer Medicare parts A and B, and offer a variety of other benefits including office visits, prescription coverage, out-of-pocket protection and a preventative coverage supplement for nothing.

The Zero, zip, zilch refers to the premium for the supplement! It’s zero. How is that possible? After a few minutes I figured it out. Our government pays the insurance companies for Medicare services, paying them about $8,000 a year per person. Even at an 80% payout, they make so much money that they can afford to include a litany of other medical benefits at “no cost” to the consumer. It isn’t “no cost” to the taxpayers.

So what does that say about the amount of money that is being paid out? For retirees who don’t participate, but default to standard Medicare (80/20%) with possibly a paid insurance policy as a supplement they pay large annual premiums to provide what Medicare Advantage includes free of charge.

This deserves greater attention. Medicare costs the taxpayers (including forty cents borrowed for every dollar spent) $767 billion a year in 2013. That’s going to hit the trillion dollar mark very soon. According to the Heritage Foundation all taxes will be consumed by Medicare, Obamacare and Social Security by 2045!

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I’m not sure that zero, zip, zilch ads. soliciting new customers means that Medicare is dramatically overpaying the medical community, but it bears further investigation. Why? Because the spiraling costs alone will destroy us.