Questions: Society & Politics

Private insurers often require a cumbersome review process that frequently results in the denial or delay of essential treatments that are readily covered by traditional Medicare. The new model relies on an additional set of private companies for traditional Medicare that have a very clear incentive to deny care.

Private plans under Medicare Advantage have become increasingly popular, with a little more than half of older Americans and people with disabilities eligible for the program and some 34 million enrolled. But many are willing to forgo some of the additional benefits the private plans offer, like dental checkups and gym memberships, to avoid having to jump through numerous administrative hoops to get care.

How insurers make their decisions remains opaque. A spokesman for Health and Human Services, which oversees the Medicare agency, declined to identify which companies had submitted applications for the contract.

People enrolled in traditional Medicare who live in Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington State will be included in the pilot experiment, which is expected to start in January and last for six years.

The fair-minded, tolerant, and inclusive staff at Vanity Fair has threatened to walk off the job if the editor puts Melania Trump on the cover of the magazine. I'm sure this has nothing to do with politics. They may just think that Melania isn't as pretty as Michelle Obama. What will you do if this happens?

Today I met my sister at the beach. She's 51, and I'm 45. We had a fun day walking the trails, swimming, and at one point we got on some public swings and acted like we were kids again. It was fun. Some people looked at us funny and laughed. What would you think if you saw some adults on the swings?

Yes? No? Maybe?