It is time to declare Medicare Advantage a failed experiment that is not only defrauding Americans, but also killing them.
Medicare Advantage is a scam
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Let’s talk about The $600 billion scamRecent research makes a compelling case for abolishing Medicare Advantage. How much would it cost to vote out someone who supports Medicare Advantage? The program is a scam. It’s a scam run by a few rich people who give the impression they’re doing good while taking your money. To those who say, “I love Medicare Advantage,” I say plainly, we need to stop being selfish and gullible. Do you know why you have to renew Medicare Advantage every year when traditional Medicare is your right to live to age 65? Because if they’re not making much money off your plan, why would they? You will be forced to do something different.R! Medicare Advantage wasn’t created for you. It was created as a revenue stream for a small number of corporate shareholders.
Medicare Advantage may seem fine now, but as enrollees get sicker, the plans will eventually be price-driven out of the market. If Medicare Advantage was that good, you wouldn’t have to quit every year or perhaps change your policy when the plan is no longer cost-effective. It’s not for you or your doctors, it’s for the rich at the top – the oligarchs and executives.
a A new academic analysis has been published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine has detailed how privatized Medicare Advantage plans have imposed huge costs on taxpayers in recent years and called for the abolition of the programs. According to the nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Committee, Medicare Advantage plans have overbilled the federal government by $612 billion since 2007, and $82 billion last year alone. Medicare Advantage is currently used by more than half of Medicare eligible recipients. These plans use a variety of tactics to receive large payments from the federal government. The federal government pays insurance companies a lump sum for each enrollee. The amount of the payment is determined by the health of the enrollee, but Medicare Advantage plans infamously portray themselves as less healthy than they are to receive large payments from the government. In other words, they are cheating.
Despite these overpayments, the new study finds that Medicare Advantage plans spend 9% less on medical services than fee-for-service Medicare for comparable enrollees. If Medicare Advantage pays less for medical care, where do the overpayments go? Some plans pay for supplemental benefits, but the plans do not disclose how much they spend on them. Medicare Advantage enrollees do not receive significantly more dental care or have lower dental copayments than standard Medicare enrollees. Rather, overhead and profits account for the majority. The study authors estimate that Medicare Advantage plan overhead costs from 2007 to 2024 will be $592 billion, representing 97% of taxpayer overpayments of $612 billion.
Dr. Adam Gaffney, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the new study, said Medicare Advantage is a bad deal for taxpayers. Money that could be used to eliminate all co-payments or shore up Medicare’s trust funds instead goes into the pockets of insurance companies. Private insurers impose bureaucratic hurdles, such as prior authorizations and denials of payment, to prevent Medicare Advantage enrollees from getting the care they need.
Gaffney and his co-authors, Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein, co-founders of the National Association of Physicians for Health Programs, declare Medicare Advantage a failed experiment and argue that it’s time to end it. “Medicare Advantage plans have effectively stolen hundreds of billions of dollars from taxpayers,” said Himmelstein, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. The private plan system also raises seniors’ Part B Medicare premiums, even though seniors who don’t sign up for Medicare Advantage subsidize their private plan benefits.
The authors note that by eliminating Medicare Advantage, the federal government could use about $88 billion in estimated Medicare Advantage overpayments next fiscal year to upgrade benefits for all Medicare beneficiaries. Traditional Medicare typically doesn’t cover dental, vision, and hearing services, which is why people choose Medicare Advantage. Smarter, more cost-effective ways to expand benefits and lower out-of-pocket costs are possible for all Medicare beneficiaries. But they must first eliminate Medicare Advantage, focus on traditional Medicare, and cover all enrollees under an expanded and improved Medicare program. The analysis concludes that this would be a good deal for patients and taxpayers.
Think about it: You don’t have to deal with prior authorizations and bureaucratic hurdles. Wendell Potter, a former insurance executive and now a critic of Medicare Advantage, told Common Dreams he agrees with the study authors that Medicare Advantage should be abolished. Medicare Advantage hasn’t saved taxpayers a cent of money since it was created during the George Bush administration. Instead, it has cost the public $592 billion over the past 17 years because of high administrative costs and insurance companies rigging the system to get overpaid every year, said Potter, president of the Center for Health and Democracy. Eliminating the program would be a tough task in the short term because the program is entrenched and insurance companies have a lot of political influence over Democrats and Republicans through their campaign contributions.
So proposals to reform Medicare Advantage to address overpayments, pre-authorizations, and other fraudulent practices are essential and important for reform advocates to support. The biggest con artists and thieves are not poor people asking the government for a little help, but corporations that are getting huge tax cuts while scamming us by taking Medicare Advantage funds, not providing services, pre-authorizing, and murdering people so they can keep their yachts.
I can’t take it anymore. I have to take action. Overflowing with the Internet We deliver the progressive message that most Americans want. We spread this truth. Join the fight End Medicare Advantage for a fairer, healthier America.
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