Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) advertisements on television are as bad as the car warranty phone calls. Too many of them and they are misleading.

Thom Hartmann, a long time progressive radio show host, writes for Raw Story, "It's time to stop the Medicare 'Advantage' scam before Medicare is dead."

It is hard to avoid all the Medicare Advantage advertisements with "star power", using William Shatner, Joe Namath, and more. The advertisements continually refer to Medicare as if Medicare Advantage is your only solution.

Hartmann claims Medicare Advantage is a "private health insurance being offered to people over 65, with the bill paid for by Medicare. Once you get on an Advantage plan it’s very difficult to get off, and if you’ve been on for more than a year you may not be able to go back to regular Medicare with a Medigap plan at all."

He continues, With Medicare Advantage plans, private insurance, you may more frequently encounter denial of coverage to include "paying for tests, and refusals to authorize or pay for surgeries and other life-saving procedures."

The New York Times article from 4/2022 also covered some of the problems with Medicare Advantage plans, "Medicare Advantage Plans Often Deny Needed Care, Federal Report Finds." "“Tens of millions of denials are issued each year for both authorization and reimbursements, and audits of the private insurers show evidence of ‘widespread and persistent problems related to inappropriate denials of services and payment,’ the investigators found.”

You can fight a denial of coverage claim, and frequently will get the coverage, but it takes time and a lot of effort.

With Medicare Advantage plans "you'll need to use doctors (and other providers, e.g. hospitals) who are in the plan's network." In most cases Original Medicare does not require referrals to see specialists, whereas Advantage plans more likely require a referral. When traveling, Advantage plans might only provide higher cost out-of-network coverage, unless in an emergency or in need of urgent care.

Hartmann concludes, "at the very least — let’s stop the egregiously deceptive advertising. Only Medicare should be able to call itself “Medicare.” Instead of saying on TV, “You can get Medicare and get dental and vision.” they should have to say, “You can get a private insurance plan for seniors that gives you dental and vision.”

One thing I can add is that it is complicated when reviewing and deciding on Medicare options. As has been mentioned before, for some older people it is quite confusing, especially if you have relied on employer sponsored insurance and have not had many decisions to make. I feel very lucky I have someone very close to me that sells health insurance, including Medicare supplement plans and Advantage plans. This person made the process of signing up for Medicare much easier.