WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:37 — 16.1MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.
This month we interview Dr Belinda McIntosh, a psychiatrist in Atlanta, Georgia, and board member of Physicians for a National Health Program. She was one of the chief authors of “No Real Choices: How Medicare Advantage Fails Seniors of Color”, an important report released in October, 2025. Medicare Advantage plans claim that they help expand healthcare to underserved populations, but this report challenges that claim.
Belinda McIntosh MD
From the podcast:
Karen Green Stone – “In this study of Medicare Advantage plans, one of your key findings is that there are systematic disparities that Black, Hispanic, and Asian seniors are financially trapped in subpar plans run by the insurance giants like United Healthcare, Anthem, Humana. The communities of color are disproportionately enrolled in the lowest quality Medicare Advantage plans, and that many seniors from under-resourced communities cannot afford Medigap Insurance to supplement traditional Medicare plans or Part D prescription drug coverage plans, and are therefore stuck with Medicare Advantage plans that limit access to specialists and high performing hospitals. Will you please explain why people would choose Medicare Advantage plans over traditional Medicare and what these systematic disparities are and why patients are financially trapped?”
Dr McIntosh: “Let’s start with the question of why do people choose these plans?The crux of what this report revealed is this is a false choice. It isn’t true that people in minority groups or people of lower income are choosing these lower quality Medicare Advantage plans. It’s simply that they don’t have the income or wealth to be able to support getting traditional Medicare plus a Medigap plan.
“If you get traditional Medicare without Medigap, your financial exposure is really excessive and it can mean you have no out-of-pocket maximum, whereas people who have more money and more choice can choose Medicare with Medigap, people of lower income simply can’t. The Medicare Advantage plans will often woo people with lower premiums. They also provide supplemental benefits which are not available in traditional Medicare. One of our main problems with traditional Medicare is that people need dental benefits and hearing benefits and vision benefits, and so that’s the other reason they’ll choose a Medicare Advantage plan, again, with lower premiums, and with these out of pocket maximums. The trouble is that the plans are really not as good as they’re marketed to be. When people actually get sick, they find that their coverage is really lacking. The other reason that people end up in these plans as opposed to choosing them is that these lower quality Medicare Advantage plans are not equally distributed geographically.
“People in Whiter wealthier areas get incentives because they have lower than average traditional Medicare spending because they’re healthier communities, and CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] gives them a bonus for having lower than average traditional Medicare spending, which they can then pass on to their their customers in the way of lower premiums and additional benefits. Those bonuses are not available in areas that have higher than average traditional Medicare spending, which means less wealthy and communities of color. Because of that, there is an inequitable geographical distribution of Medicare Advantage plans by quality.”
To learn more, listen to the entire 17 minute interview.
Dr Belinda McIntosh video presenting No real choices for seniors of color in corporate health plans
14 health systems dropping Medicare Advantage plans | 2026 from Beckers Hospital Review 12/30/25
Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.
Follow Medicare for All Indiana @medicareforallindiana on Substack. You can make comments and ask questions on Substack, as well as look at all our posts in one place.
Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB
Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program
“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.
