I am 80 years old and watch free videos on Youtube.com. Lately we older Americans have been bombarded with a blitz of advertisements that begin with, “Every older person, over 65 needs to see this.” And it goes on to say that we are missing out on thousands of free money that you can spend any way…all you have to do is click the button below.

It suggests that it is a government program of Medicare, when in fact by asking for the money card you are switching from regular Medicare to Medicare Advantage, “a private insurers plan which fails to tell you how much more limited the provider’s network is or how hard it is to get back to regular Medicare.” 

Newsweek stated, “one in five with the privatization plans reported issues getting care for costly procedures due to approval denials and delays. “Some hospitals won’t take Medicare Advantage because of the frequency of prior authorization delays and denials.

 The good news is that you can switch back one time to regular Medicare both parts A and B before March 31st. Older people need to read small print before switching even though it is blurred and written in light blue print as shown on the You Tube advertisments.

Information can be found in “’ Politico “, Robert King, “The American Prospect”, Matthew Cunningham-Cook, “The Motley Fool”, Maurie Backman and Sarah Jane Tribble in NPR’s “KFF Health News,” also found in “The Week”, under The Business section, page 33, under Health Costs: The drawbacks of Medicare Advantage

I believe this is important to let people know now in enough time for them to change if they want to or at least look at the changes in plans.

Elizabeth B. Turner

North Lawrence