Does America’s healthcare industry maintain high profit margins by providing superior care and/or medicine, or by financing the political process with profits provided by patients?

You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment
in length, in weight or in measure.

Leviticus 19:35

Premiums jump 14 percent on Medicare private plans

Millions of seniors who signed up for popular private health plans through Medicare are facing sharp premium increases this year…

…premiums for Medicare Advantage plans offering medical and prescription drug coverage jumped 14.2 percent on average in 2010, after an increase of only 5.2 percent the previous year. Some 8.5 million elderly and disabled Americans are in the plans…

…Private fee-for-service plans, which offer a broad choice of doctors and hospitals, saw increases averaging 31.2 percent…

...Seniors who did not shop around for lower-priced coverage during open enrollment in the fall got hit with some of the biggest increases, averaging 22 percent…

…higher Medicare Advantage premiums for 2010 followed a cut in government payments to the private plans last year.

… bills pending in Congress call for even more cuts, expected to force many seniors to drop out of what has been a rapidly growing alternative to traditional Medicare.

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press