a kaiser study published last month the rate was even higher among black and hispanic beneficiaries people over 85 and those with lower income and fewer years of education precisely the groups most likely to require more medical services and drugs and least able to pay high costsroughly half of respondents had never visited the official medicare website used its 1800medicare help line or read the medicare you handbook that annually arrives by mailaccordingly theres not a lot of switching dr neuman said kaiser found that in 2019 only eight to 10 percent of beneficiaries voluntarily changed their medicare advantage or standalone part d plansimagecreditkenny holston for the new york timessome of that inertia may reflect peoples satisfaction with their coverage it might also indicate an overwhelming amount of choice for 2022 beneficiaries face an average of 33 medicare advantage plans to select from but 56 in philadelphia and 63 in cincinnati and 30 standalone part d plansit is hopelessly needlessly complicated and it continues to get more complicated said david lipschutz associate director of the center for medicare advocacy the entire system relies on savvy actors maximizing their choices and that just does not happeneven those who are motivated to comparison shop can have trouble finding reliable information most overtures and ads come from brokers or agents with financial incentives though the offers may mimic official medicare communicationsmoreover brokers typically only market a portion of plans sometimes excluding the most advantageous a fact theyre not required to disclose said gretchen jacobson a vice president of medicare at the commonwealth fund a foundation which supports health researchthe center for medicare advocacy a nonprofit group has charged that medicare itself has shown bias toward private medicare advantage plans in its promotional materials starting in 2017 they started overplaying some of the benefits and downplaying some of the negatives said mr lipschutz i think they wanted private health insurers to thrivemedicare has since resumed a more neutral stance but they still have a way to go mr lipschutz saidas for the star ratings that medicare awards critics have begun to invoke the lake wobegon effect after the radio personality garrison keillors fictional town where the children are all above average medicare gave four stars or higher to 68 percent of 2022 medicare advantage plans with drug coverage making the rankings less than useful for comparisonshow much does all this matter with part d choosing the most costeffective plan goes beyond a financial issue because skipping unaffordable medications can have health consequences and choosing between traditional medicare and medicare advantage involves substantial differences in the health care experiencemedicare advantage plans so increasingly popular that 42 percent of medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in one offer onestop shopping they include a part d benefit and dont require a supplemental medigap policy to cover copayments and deductiblesthey put a cap on outofpocket expenses 7550 for innetwork coverage in 2021 they also promote extra benefits like dental hearing and vision coverage and transportation though they