Medicare Disadvantage Plans

medium.com
The Medicare Advantage Boondoggle Rolls On "Last year, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a nonprofit health policy organization, 643,000 Medicare ads ran on television during the nine-week enrollment season, most of them for Medicare Advantage plans. That doesn’t include the bombardments of direct mail and internet ads..."

Then all the companies have to do is spend less than Medicare would have, and still make a profit. How? That’s easy — by ratcheting down the reimbursements they pay to doctors and clinicians and hospitals, and by denying coverage for expensive claims that Medicare would have approved...

An analysis in 2021 found that Medicare overpaid the Medicare Advantage plans more than $106 billion from 2010 to 2019. To put it another way, Medicare paid private insurers $106 billion more than it would have spent had everyone eligible been covered by original Medicare. The outflow continues to increase annually."

In my opinion this is the biggest scam congress ever perpetrated on the American people.

I consider it legalized fraud.





usatoday.com
Hospitals, doctors drop private Medicare plans over payment disputes "One large health system with hospitals in Virginia and Ohio this year cut off in-network access to consumers enrolled in some Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare and Medicaid health insurance plans.

Two doctors groups with Scripps Health in San Diego are terminating contracts with private Medicare plans over concerns about payments and routine denials."

Puerto Rico: The Most Unequal Place in America

The reason the rich powerful well connected trash AOC is she exposes them. We may not agree with all of AOC's views, but she does an awful lot of good exposing those who'd rather not have her around. Let all of us focus on actual issues rather then those who bring them to light.

Imagine how better off if those folks from Puerto Rico were able to live better with the families where they were born. The problem with this country is we exploit other nations economies. The resulting poverty is what drives huge numbers across our borders looking for a better life. I'm certain the answer to our immigration woes can be greatly decreased if we help the countries they are arriving from through economic drivers and equitable trade. I can't imagine people wouldn't want to remain in the cultures they were born in if were economically feasible to do so.

911 Active Shooter Call At Allen HS 10/26/2023

wfmz.com
911 call for active shooter at Allen HS prompts emergency response 10:20 AM "Police and emergency crews responded to William Allen High School Thursday morning following a 911 call."

ASD Held A Press Conference On This 10/26/2023


Thank goodness this was unfounded. I have a suspicion this may have come from some other area in the United States. There have been prank calls similar to this in the past.

What Former Part Of The Morning Call Building Now Looks Like

Thanks to Frank Warner for posting this: "At Sixth Street, Allentown, The Morning Call newsroom many of us knew lies in this rubble. This was yesterday, Oct. 22, 2023."
Next time you're feeling like you don't know what's happened to the world, remember who used to tell you. pic.twitter.com/MXKk1HTe24

— Evan Brandt (@PottstownNews) October 23, 2023

This is progress?

Warning Against Choosing A Medicare Advantage Plan

You've been warned.

Tuerk's 2024 Allentown Budget Has A 6.9% Tax Increase

wfmz.com
Tuerk unveils 2024 Allentown budget with 6.9% tax increase "The tax hike will generate about $2.6 million of revenue for the city's general fund and "will have a limited impact on the majority Allentown residents," according to the mayor.... The mayor also wants to spend more money on "celebrating the various cultures"

Some limited impact! I'm on Social Security. Celebrating culture. << THAT'S NOT YOUR JOB !!!

This guy can find more ways to waste money on social programs. These have nothing to do with providing city essential services.

Taxpayers at the federal and state levels are pouring bucketfuls of money already into this city. Apparently the $2 billion NIZ cash cow has done nothing for city taxpayers. A coupled million more dollars in state and federal grants hasn't either.

Talk about your incompetence.. this is madness!



UPDATE
11/04/2023: Allentown City Council approves budget with no tax increase for 2024

Tesla's Roadside Assistance Vehicle

Mail In Ballot Tip

If you're too stupid to figure out how to correctly fill it out and mail it properly you shouldn't be voting.

John Boehner- Ideologues Harm America

April 11, 2021

His words ring true now more then ever given the U.S. House is currently shutdown in complete disarray. Can't say we weren't warned. Man he sure did have things pegged. Kind of makes you miss the guy who kept some of these screwballs from gumming up the works. Boehner is the guy who we never knew how good we had it till he was gone. What a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in. Can we ever hope to find someone able to assume the position of speaker who can keep these radicals in line?

Hamas A Lesson Why Elections Are Extremely Important

This was where all of today's middle east troubles began. Voters need to be very careful who they vote for. Even our democracy can go sideways very badly when the electorate gets far too many yahoos into office.

Palestinian Election Observation 2006

A few years ago, in 2021, Palestinians thought they'd get a chance for another election. Hamas nipped that idea in the bud.



\What happened over there can happen anywhere, even here. Don't think so? Well it almost did on January 6th when the last president tried to refuse giving up his power along with his supporters.

Now because of voters choices the U.S. House has come to a complete standstill. I am of the opinion the U.S. House won't come to an agreement for the next speaker for some time. Perhaps even before the 12 government funding bills that await run out in a few weeks. This would have a catastrophic effect on both the U.S. Government functions as well as almost every citizen.

Indeed voting does have consequences. It most certainly did for the Palestinians who now find themselves in a world of hurt for the choices they made. I'm leery American voters are not any wiser then they when it comes to poor choices we make for leaders. Considering one of these candidates (Trump) is up to his neck in indictments, exposed our classified material, praises our adversaries, trash talks just about every institution or anyone who worked for him is still well positioned to become our next president. This makes me question our voters may be dumb as the Palestinians who supported the worst possible choices to run government for themselves. Sometimes people deserve what they get. I'm not one of them.

LIVE STREAMING Minute To Minute Coverage Of The Israeli War

I recommend Al Jazeera because they have more reporters in Lebanon, the Gaza region, Isreal and elsewhere then the other two. They also seem to have more field journalists doing live reports on the ground.

Al Jazeera English (Doha, Qatar)

i24NEWS English (Tel Aviv)

Sky News (UK)

How To Fix The Economy

Repost

It is the month of April. A resort town sits next to the shores of a lake. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 dollar bill on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the pig raiser.

The pig raiser takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 dollar bill to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 dollar bill back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 dollar bill, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

Trump Accuses Biden Of Having Betrayed Israel Through Foreign Policy Decisions

If there's any kind of betrayal it came from Trump. Talk about "DEFLECTION"!

May 10, 2017


npr.org
Trump Hosts Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov And Ambassador Kislyak At White House May 10, 2017 "President Trump hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday, one day after firing the man whose agency is investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power.

Trump fired now-former FBI Director James Comey, who told Congress earlier this year that his agency has been investigating Russia's actions "

Keep in mind nobody outside the Whitehouse knew Lavrov was there if not for a Russian tweet with a photo showing it.

Ambassador Kislyak and President Trump / Посол С.Кисляк и Президент Д.Трамп pic.twitter.com/Ckkx2YL9KX

— Russian Embassy in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) May 10, 2017

After the visit secret service was alarmed and did a complete security sweep of the Whitehouse. Never before was a high ranking Putin crony ever allowed near the Whitehouse.

Why is Trump still walking around and not in jail for all the crap he's pulled!

Medicare Advantage Plans Rip-off

alternet.org
OPINION:
The Medicare Advantage ripoff every American should know about "President George W. Bush and Republicans (and a handful of on-the-take Democrats) in Congress created the Medicare Advantage scam in 2003 as a way of routing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of for-profit insurance companies.

Those companies, and their executives, then recycle some of that profit back into politicians’ pockets via the Citizens United legalized bribery loophole created by five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court."

It seems to me long as people sign up for these plans they are perpetuating the problem. There's many things we can't do about the crap congress pulls off, but this isn't one of them. People need to vote with their wallets by not signing up for these plans.

Medicare Advantage. What Advantage?

The short, if anyone signs up for a Medicare Advantage plan they're being played. I saw through this scam congress enacted from day one. Each are either HMO or PPO plans. This meaning you cannot go outside their network of approved doctors. Thus sometimes forcing people to drive hours to one of their specialist even if one is minutes away that Medicare would have covered.

I'm familiar with a fellow who once worked for a health insurance company. His job was to try and deny payments for treatments. He was constantly reviewed and hounded if he approved too many. Eventually he was fired because his denial rate didn't match the insurance company's goals.

There are actually certain groups of doctors who form a company paid to only review records never having seen any of the patients. These can be many states away and are contracted by insurance companies to do just that (deny treatment is necessary). The more they diagnose a treatment as unnecessary the more they are paid.

As far as I'm concerned Medicare Advantage plans are legal scams perpetuated by those in congress trying to destroy Medicare. They're great plans as long as someone never gets seriously ill. Otherwise they are a nightmare for those unfortunate enough not to have chosen traditional Medicare.

Frankie The Dinosaur Message For Humanity

Repost From November 2021


Created By: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Nancy Pelosi Evicted From Her Private Office In The Capitol By Interim House Speaker

Talk about petty vindictiveness!

nypost.com
Pelosi evicted from her private office "An email sent to Pelosi’s office on Tuesday said the “room will be re-keyed” and reassigned for “speaker use,” Politico first reported... A television and bags were seen outside the office before they were hauled away.

The move came just hours after McHenry was named House speaker pro tempore following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a historic vote Tuesday. "


This new guy gave her less then 24 hours to vacate. He surely must have known Nancy was in San Francisco for the burial of former Senator Feinstein. Face the fact these new classless jackasses have little to do with traditional Republican values.

Surely they must have more important matters to attend to. Like let's say the budget for instance. It seems to me 90% of their time is spent trying to backstab not only Democrats but also members of their own party. Heaven forbid a priority should be to take up the matters that are most meaningful to their constituents who sent them there. This session of the House is the most hateful useless one I've seen in my lifetime. What a bunch of buffoons.

Which bring us to the next appointment to speaker of the house. The MAGA Republicans won't be satisfied with anyone even mildly rational. The Democrats won't except anyone who isn't. We could very well not have a speaker for a very long time. This means the U.S. House will come to a complete stop. Wonder what that will mean in terms of when the continuing resolution for the budget extension runs out in a several weeks.

Putin must be laughing his ass off thanks to his new BFFs in congress. Face it, we're in one hellva' mess. I see little hope for the days that lay ahead. The saddest part is, these spiteful jerks didn't get there on their own. American voters put them there time after time again. What does that say to the rest of the world about us!

Ever Wonder What Goes On Behind The Scenes In Washington, D.C.?

I've been watching 'penguinsix' YouTube videos for some time. He's a fully credentialed freelance photographer for the Washington D.C. media. He post almost daily.

I've learned more about Washington landmarks then most will ever able to come across on their own. You couldn't find a better tour guide if you tried.

In this video he is covering actress Selma Blair's visit on Monday, October 02, 2023 to the Whitehouse.

Store Looters Not Just A Problem In The U.S.

dailymail.co.uk
Nearly 90 retailers call for crackdown on brazen looters and thieves bringing chaos to our streets "The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said this summer shoplifting had risen 27 per cent across ten of the largest cities in the UK, with some cities up as much as 68 per cent."

So despite what some people would have you believe the problem doesn't lie alone within the liberal run cities. It's a ongoing problem throughout Europe as well. People really need to knock this partisanship crap off and start working together for solutions. Seems we're so mired in finger pointing nothing is getting resolved. All this bickering is useless. It accomplishes nothing.

I'm Thinking About Upgrading My Present Internet Provider

Dem computers sure do talk funny doesn't they?