Insurers launch new TV ads against Medicare Advantage cuts

The insurance industry launched a second television ad Monday against proposed cuts to private Medicare Advantage plans.

The latest ad features seniors talking into the camera about the "drastic" consequences of losing access to their Medicare Advantage plans. 

"If Medicare Advantage has some cuts to it, I'm going to be in bad shape financially," one man says in the new ad, which began airing in Washington, D.C. on Monday and will air in Louisiana on Tuesday.

It's the second television ad America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has launched in a far-reaching lobbying campaign to block the proposed cuts. More than 100 members of Congress, representing both parties, have also written letters to the Medicare agency protesting the proposed cuts.

The agency recently proposed a 2.2 percent cut in payments to Medicare Advantage — Medicare plans administered by private insurance companies.

The 2 percent cut would come on top of reductions included in President Obama's healthcare law. All told, according to AHIP, plans would have to find benefit cuts or premium increases worth $50 to $90 per customer if the cuts go through.

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