Better Medicare Alliance Statement on MedPAC’s Meeting on Annual Status Report
Statement by Better Medicare Alliance President and CEO, Mary Beth Donahue, on MedPAC’s January Meeting on Annual Status Report
WASHINGTON – Better Medicare Alliance, the nation’s leading research and advocacy organization supporting Medicare Advantage and the more than 31 million beneficiaries it serves, today released the following statement in response to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) meeting on the preliminary annual status report:
“We appreciate MedPAC’s continued focus on Medicare Advantage and the beneficiaries the program serves, particularly as more seniors and people with disabilities choose Medicare Advantage.
We have concerns about MedPAC’s methodology and how they reached their conclusions. The implications for beneficiaries, especially given that Medicare Advantage serves 51 percent of the Medicare population, including vulnerable and underserved communities, would be consequential if policymakers advanced policies without complete information and acknowledging the concerns raised in today’s meeting.”
Relative to beneficiaries in fee-for-service Medicare, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries are lower-income, more diverse, medically and socially complex, and increasingly live in rural areas.
Medicare Advantage provides annual savings, benefits, and more for beneficiaries, including:
- The average monthly premium in 2024 is $18, and beneficiaries again have nearly universal access to an MA-PD plan with no additional premium; 73% of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries paid no additional premium for their MA-PD plan in 2023.
- 52% of MA beneficiaries live on annual incomes below $25,000
- The average monthly premium in 2024 is $18
- 31 million beneficiaries choose Medicare Advantage, or 51% of the Medicare population
- 27% of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries identify as Black, Latino, or Asian, compared to 17% in FFS Medicare
- 40% of beneficiaries living in rural areas choose Medicare Advantage, four times the share of beneficiaries in 2010
- MA beneficiaries experience a 43% lower rate of avoidable hospitalizations and 21% higher rate of seeing a physician within 14 days of a discharge than Medicare FFS
- 9% of Medicare Advantage plans offer supplemental benefits
- Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with prediabetes who develop type 2 diabetes are diagnosed, on average, nearly 5 months earlier than similar FFS beneficiaries
- Medicare Advantage beneficiaries report similar or higher rates of preventative service use compared to FFS Medicare beneficiaries and rates are highest among cancer survivors and patients
Better Medicare Alliance is a community of more than one million grassroots beneficiaries and 200+ Ally organizations working to improve health care through a strong Medicare Advantage. Learn more at www.bettermedicarealliance.org.
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