Villages-News.com has been deluged with commentary from readers reacting to Sunday’s story “Villages Health kicking out patients who don’t sign up for their insurance.”
“I think I may have missed the episode on Marcus Welby where the Doc explained to his patients that when he promised to grow old with us, he meant only if he could make a substantial profit. If at any time his manager with the designation of FACMPE said there were a way to maximize profits by kicking us to the curb, sadly, that is what had to be done,” said Kathy Owens of the Village of Hemingway.
She recalled a few years ago when Villagers were encouraged to chip in to help buy equipment for a local cancer treatment facility.
“This is so strongly reminiscent of the Moffitt fiasco,” Owens said.
Larry Parr of the Village of Pennecamp said we’ve seen this story before.
“Seven years ago when Obama told us, ‘if you like your insurance plan, you can keep your insurance plan, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.’ Not one bit of difference. My supplement plan is much better than the Advantage plan, it just doesn’t generate enough cash for The Villages! Sad,” Parr said in an email Sunday to Villages-News.com.
Villager Bill Jones described his reaction to the letter informing him of The Villages Health’s insurance decision.
“As soon as I picked up the letter, I told my wife it was all about money for the Morse family. We analyzed our choice last November and decided that we wanted insurance that was the best for us, not for the Morse family. I had a heart procedure within the last year which cost us nothing. We have concluded that every time an insurance company adds a word to the end of an insurance program’s name (i.e., Advantage) it is a lesser policy,” Jones said.
Sharyn Gifford of the Village of Chatham suspects that the letter was motivated by greed.
“I think it’s a big mistake to try to force people out of their Medicare health coverage just to make the developer more money,” she said. “Don’t do this to retired people who have worked their whole life to get to this point.”
Villager Betty Cunningham, the longtime SHINE (Serving Health Insurance needs of Elders) counselor in The Villages, had a simple message for the Villages-News.com reporter who wrote the story.
“Thank you to Marv Balousek for writing an honest and unbiased article. People need to know their choices and must realize that one size does not fit all,” she said.
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