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Retirees whose former employers offer health coverage are being shifted to privately run Medicare Advantage, often against their wishes. The change saves millions for employers.
Many employers have dropped these benefits over the past several decades, and those that still offer them are shifting retirees into Medicare Advantage plans at a rapid pace.
Half of large employers offering benefits to Medicare-age retirees have contracts with Medicare Advantage plans, nearly double the share in 2017, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And roughly 44 percent don’t give retirees a choice to use traditional Medicare within their programs. Most cited lower cost as the key reason.