Obama challenged Medicare Advantage

[sandnsea]

After the week-end doughnut hole debacle, I'm glad to see these remarks which clearly means he's not done trying to get better results from Medicare. I'm surprised nobody is talking about this very real swing against the insurance companies too.

“What I’ve said is, if we’re going to spend that much money, then it’s going to be largely funded through reallocating dollars that are already in the health care system but aren’t being spent well. If we’re spending $177 billion over 10 years to subsidize insurance companies under Medicare Advantage, when there’s no showing that people are healthier using that program than the regular Medicare program, well, that’s not a good deal for taxpayers. And we’re going to take that money and we’re going to use it to provide better care at a cheaper cost to the American people. So that’s point number one.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Press-Conference-by-the-President-6-23-09

[lindisfarne]

1. Why ever was Medicare Advantage implemented? I suppose I could google but if someone has a concise

explanation ...