When Medical Advantage reforms take effect, they will restrict senior citizens and the disabled to fewer and worse health care choices, Heritage analysts say.

• Scheduled tax hikes on capital gains taking effect Jan. 1 will hurt 57 percent of Florida seniors, who rely on retirement savings accounts for their fixed income.
• Nearly tripling the top dividend tax rate will depress the value of stocks in several industry sectors by more than $211 billion, serving as a double whammy to seniors who will receive fewer dividends that are taxed at a higher rate.
• Already-enacted federal health-care legislation will force some 543,963 Florida seniors out of health plans in Medicare Advantage (which currently makes up about one-fourth of the Medicare program).

When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Medicare Advantage reforms take effect, they will restrict senior citizens and the disabled to fewer and worse health care choices, reducing their access to quality health care, Heritage analysts say.

"The PPACA will force an estimated 7.4 million people (50 percent of enrollees) out of health plans they would have chosen under prior law and into the fee-for-service program," the report states.

What's more, transferring beneficiaries to a fee-for-service program will also have the secondary effect of increasing Medicaid and Medicare Part D spending by almost $2.5 billion in 2017, the report projected.

"Medicare beneficiaries who would have enrolled in the Medicare Advantage program under prior law will lose an average of $3,714 in 2017 health care services," according to the report, "disproportionately harming low-income and minority beneficiaries, increasing state and federal Medicaid costs, and increasing spending on prescription drugs."

The health-care law, which is being challenged by Florida and 20 other states, also has taken hits from the Florida Medical Association, which envisioned ill-effects for the state's senior population.

"The FMA opposed the passage of the federal health care legislation because we felt that Congress could have passed a better bill that would have fixed the Medicare program, provided more options for seniors, and protected the relationship between physicians and their patients," said FMA Executive Vice President Tim Stapleton.