Where Does Medicare Go From Here: Profit-Driven Chaos or Patient-Centered Community?

[Passages]

After covering the Medicare privatization crisis for over two years, an investigative reporter takes a step back and examines what’s at stake.

BY MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM-COOK APRIL 19, 2024


This article is a co-publication with HEALTH CARE un-covered, a website about the health insurance industry. It is available at wendellpotter.substack.com.

Medicare, the country’s largest and arguably most successful healthcare program, is under duress, weakened by decades of relentless efforts by insurance companies to privatize it.

A rapidly growing Medicare Advantage market—now 52% of Medicare beneficiaries, up from 37% in 2018—controlled by some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world, threatens to both drain the trust fund and eliminate Medicare’s most important and controversial component: its ability to set prices.

It is not an overstatement to call it a heist of historic proportions, endangering the health not only of the more than 65 million seniors and people with disabilities who depend on Medicare but all Americans who benefit from the powerful role that Medicare has historically played in reining in health care costs. The giant corporations that dominate Medicare Advantage have rigged the system to maximize payments from our government to the point that they are now being overpaid between $88 billion and $140 billion a year. The overpayments could soar to new heights if the insurers get their way and eliminate traditional Medicare.

https://prospect.org/health/2024-04-19-where-does-medicare-go-from-here/

[Autumn]

1. It will remain "Profit-Driven Chaos" as long as the politicians make a profit off of it.

[Dulcinea]

8. THIS.

Nothing will change until & unless the profit motive is removed.

[Silent Type]

2. Maybe if Congress and critics looked at reason 52% of Medicare beneficiaries voluntarily select Medicare Adv, we'd be

better off.

Instead, we sit here criticizing poor people who select MA because it saves them $200 or so a month in premiums (supplement and drug plan) plus in many instances provides some limited dental coverage, some vision, out-of-pocket max, a small food allowance, etc.

Until Congress -- and that includes Democrats -- do something about traditional Medicare, I'm fine with spending and extra "$88 billion and $140 billion a year" to get people those benefits.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. NYC is coercing city union retirees to

take Medicare Advantage. That’s adding to its numbers.

[Passages]

4. Yes, and many people remain confused about the danger of the MA plans.

SNIP*That’s not to say that traditional Medicare doesn’t need improvements. Patients often choose Medicare Advantage because they are attracted by misleading promises of low premiums and extra benefits such as dental, hearing, and vision (though as MA collapses, these promises may be abandoned). There is no reason why these benefits should not exist and work better in traditional Medicare, and in fact they could be largely funded by all the overpayments currently going to MA insurers. The more we improve the benefits offered by the traditional Medicare program, the more people will pick it over MA, saving the government money and saving themselves from a series of health care headaches. That’s competition that can really work.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/28/medicare-advantage-traditional-overpayment-patient-dissatisfaction-investors/

[cilla4progress]

5. A profit-based health care system will ALWAYS sacrifice

individuals' health for greed!!

[FakeNoose]

6. K & R

I sure hope Biden has plans for beefing up the ACA during his 2nd term. The Medicare program needs to be revised also, because it's being slaughtered by Medicare Advantage. But the first priority has to be saving the Affordable Care Act and getting it on better footing. If anyone can fix this, Biden can.

[anciano]

7. If an out of pocket spending cap was added

to Original Medicare, like the Advantage plans and ACA both have, it would make the traditional plan more attractive and competitive. But I don't think that will very likely happen.