Tell Congress not to privatize Medicare

Rep. Paul Ryan from Wisconsin has proposed turning Medicare over to the insurance companies and providing recipients a “voucher” to buy insurance. Medicare currently operates very efficiently with 3-percent overhead costs, whereas commercial insurance companies have 20-percent overhead, including multimillion-dollar executive salaries. Given the same amount of money, the only way to cover that overhead is to provide fewer services and lower rates.

While the Medicare Advantage plans claim to offer “comprehensive” benefits and “your choice” of physicians, fewer physicians, nursing homes and home care companies are willing to accept their lower rates and increased administrative burdens and their prescription “benefit” often requires an onerous “pre-certification” process that can lead to delays in getting your lifesaving medications.

This could mean traveling to the next county to get medical care or being sent to a nursing facility far from your home and family to recover from a hospitalization. And, of course, when their stockholders demand higher profit margins, the plans will raise rates and reduce benefits.

Please take a moment to notify your representatives that turning Medicare over to the insurance companies is the wrong choice for America.

Dr. Ronald Hirsch

Elgin