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'Privatized' Medicare Dupes Elderly: Audits

Providers accused of cutting coverage, ignoring complaints

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 7, 2007 8:18 PM CDT

(Newser) – Dems are likely loading political ammo after audits show that Medicare providers have cut thousands from coverage and snubbed those who complain. What's more, HIV/AIDS patients have been booted, standards flouted and phones left ringing. Dems have long opposed efforts to "privatize Medicare," but feds say the changes improve choice and slash prices, the New York Times reports.

One official accepts the audits, saying, "The start-up period is over. I am simply not going to tolerate marketing abuses.” Another claims that Medicare has taken "vigorous action" to halt abuses. Yet lawmakers stand by the probes: One says he has “verified countless stories of deceptive sales practices by insurance agents who prey upon the elderly."

This photo provided by ABC News shows Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, talking about the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) on ABC's This Week Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007, in Washington.  (AP Photo/ABC, Lauren Victoria Burke)
This photo provided by ABC News shows Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, talking about the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, Oct. 7,...   (Associated Press)
U.S. Health and Human Services  Secretary Michael Leavitt, smiles as he is introduced to discuss health insurance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, smiles as he is introduced to discuss health insurance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., Tuesday,...   (Associated Press)
Doug Morris sits in his home in Middleton, Wis. Thursday, May 24, 2007.  When Morris, a retired college professor, joined the Medicare program last spring, he went right to work reading the 107-page handbook that explained his benefits, expenses and rights.  (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Doug Morris sits in his home in Middleton, Wis. Thursday, May 24, 2007. When Morris, a retired college professor, joined the Medicare program last spring, he went right to work reading the 107-page handbook...   (Associated Press)
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