Obama attacks insurance industry, private Medicare plans

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama stood on a shuffleboard court at a senior citizen center Friday and turned his focus to health care issues. Staffers said the meeting with about 100 invited senior citizens marks a renewed effort to turn the campaign to smaller, more intimate gatherings where Obama can get up close and answer questions from voters. Although health care was his focus, Obama took questions on veterans care, overcrowded prisons, sending jobs overseas, Middle East violence and how he'd choose a Cabinet. He said as president he would end government subsidies to insurance companies that sell private Medicare plans to seniors by using deceptive or illegal means. Obama said Medicare's private plan alternative, Medicare Advantage, was designed to increase competition and reduce costs. However, he said that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent group that advises Congress, recently reported that the government pays an average of 12 percent more to private Medicare plans than it costs to treat comparable beneficiaries through traditional Medicare. The subsidies cost as much as $15 billion a year, he said. Cutting that would provide $150 billion over 10 years to strengthen Medicare and lower prescription drug prices, he said. "We don't do that because we are not setting the agenda in Washington, insurance companies and drug companies are. That's what people want to turn the page on," he said to loud applause. "We want a system that's fair and sensible to everyone." In some cases, the plans increase co-payments or reduce health care choices, he said. "We shouldn't be rewarding the insurance industry for deceiving and defrauding our seniors. We should be doing everything we can to stop them," he said. The issue hit home for Dorothy Weathers, 78, of Des Moines, who said she will support Obama. She said insurance companies selling the Medicare plans "pounced in on us at the centers like vultures." "A lot of us are worse off than we were before. I know I am," she said. "We can't afford it." Obama, she said, appears sincere and she believes he will keep his promises. "I have a little feeling there that he just might. We women have this intuition. He doesn't ever stutter on questions that are asked. He's like a son to us, so we have that motherly instinct toward him which means a lot sometimes," she said. © Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.