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Why millions of seniors have suddenly lost health care coverage [View all]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/03/28/insurance-health-care-medicare-seniors/
Archive: https://archive.ph/jz0Dt
The privatized version of Medicare — Medicare Advantage — grew rapidly with perks like vision and dental care. In some regions options are dwindling.
At 70, landscape artist Anthony J. Petchkis lives with a host of health problems. There was the heart attack that sent him on an ambulance ride from his home in the mountains of New Hampshire to Portland, Maine, for an arterial stent. His cholesterol is stubbornly high. He has diabetes, gout and rheumatoid arthritis. He takes eight medications a day.
Until this year, he at least felt confident insurance would fully cover his medical bills, which he estimates run to several thousands of dollars a year. Then his Medicare Advantage plan dropped him.
“How am I going to pay all these things going into the future?” said Petchkis, who lives on about $24,000 a year from Social Security and the sale of the White Mountain landscapes he paints in his Conway studio. “Now I seem okay, but six months or a year from now, something really catastrophic could happen.”
Petchkis and thousands of other elderly people in New Hampshire lost their insurance and were forced to scramble for alternatives this year, part of a broader phenomenon as Medicare Advantage companies abandoned communities where their plans threatened profits or lost money. Hardest hit were a half-dozen rural states from New England to Idaho.
Archive: https://archive.ph/jz0Dt
The privatized version of Medicare — Medicare Advantage — grew rapidly with perks like vision and dental care. In some regions options are dwindling.
At 70, landscape artist Anthony J. Petchkis lives with a host of health problems. There was the heart attack that sent him on an ambulance ride from his home in the mountains of New Hampshire to Portland, Maine, for an arterial stent. His cholesterol is stubbornly high. He has diabetes, gout and rheumatoid arthritis. He takes eight medications a day.
Until this year, he at least felt confident insurance would fully cover his medical bills, which he estimates run to several thousands of dollars a year. Then his Medicare Advantage plan dropped him.
“How am I going to pay all these things going into the future?” said Petchkis, who lives on about $24,000 a year from Social Security and the sale of the White Mountain landscapes he paints in his Conway studio. “Now I seem okay, but six months or a year from now, something really catastrophic could happen.”
Petchkis and thousands of other elderly people in New Hampshire lost their insurance and were forced to scramble for alternatives this year, part of a broader phenomenon as Medicare Advantage companies abandoned communities where their plans threatened profits or lost money. Hardest hit were a half-dozen rural states from New England to Idaho.
Are we great enough yet? MAGA!
Lots of personal stories and photos at link. I think I might like to live in a blue state when I'm old and retired.
14 replies
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