‘Hell No’: Trump Allies’ Plan to Privatize Medicare Draws Alarm and Outrage
It never ends as commercial interests keep trying to horn in on healthcare for the old geezers like myself. Except, it is not person related healthcare. It is related to the size of your wallet. More on Medicare Advantage by Jake Johnson at Common Dreams.
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A right-wing coalition’s proposal to make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option would be a “clear handout to the private insurance industry,” said one critic.
‘Hell No’: Trump Allies’ Plan to Privatize Medicare Draws Alarm and Outrage, Common Dreams, Jake Johnson
A right-wing coalition that’s been laying the policy groundwork for another Trump presidency has developed a plan to further privatize Medicare by making fraud-riddled Medicare Advantage “the default enrollment option” for newly eligible beneficiaries.
The plan, highlighted Monday by Rolling Stone‘s Andrew Perez, is outlined about halfway through Project 2025’s 920-page playbook for the first six months of a conservative presidency.
Republican administrations and right-wing groups have long advocated funneling people who are newly eligible for Medicare into Medicare Advantage plans, which are funded by the federal government and run by for-profit insurers. During his first White House term, former President Donald Trump took steps to actively encourage seniors to choose Medicare Advantage plans over traditional Medicare and expanded the benefits that the privately run plans are allowed to offer.
Those efforts have had an impact. As Perez noted, “Last year, for the first time ever, a majority of Americans eligible for Medicare were on privatized Medicare Advantage plans.”
“If Republicans win the presidential race this year,” he wrote, “the push to fully privatize Medicare, the government health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities, will only intensify.”
Every year, new and existing Medicare recipients have an opportunity to enroll in Medicare Advantage plans, which engage in aggressive and often highly deceptive advertising practices to lure seniors who are often seeking out benefits not currently offered by traditional Medicare, such as vision and dental care.
Once enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans—which offer limited networks of doctors and overbill the government to the tune of $140 billion a year—patients often feel trapped and are subjected to care denials and other deep flaws in the program that have drawn growing attention from lawmakers in recent years.
If Project 2025, which is led by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, gets its way, Medicare Advantage providers would be given even greater power over the critical government insurance program. The Trump administration embraced many of the Heritage Foundation’s policy recommendations during its first year in power.
“Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican cronies plan to totally privatize Medicare if they win in November’s election,” the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works wrote in response to Rolling Stone‘s reporting. “Hell no. Hands off our earned benefits.”
Philip Verhoef, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, told Rolling Stone that Project 2025’s plan to make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option would be “disastrous.”
“To do so would be really just a clear handout to the private insurance industry,” Verhoef said.
Project 2025 has said that it doesn’t “speak for any presidential candidate,” but Trump’s reelection campaign has relied on parts of the coalition’s proposed agenda for second-term planning.
Trump’s team has faced backlash over some of Project 2025’s work, including draft executive orders that would use the Insurrection Act to deploy the U.S. military against demonstrators. As The Washington Postreported in December, Trump campaign senior adviser Susie Wiles complained privately to Project 2025’s director and asked the coalition to “stop promoting its work to reporters.”
Seth Schuster, a spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, warned in a statement Monday that “if Donald Trump wins this November, he and Republicans will continue their push to end Medicare as we know it for millions of Americans.”
“Trump will leave millions of seniors with fewer benefits and less access to doctors—all to benefit his big insurance donors,” said Schuster. “In Trump’s America, the special interests win and seniors and working families lose. Worse care, broken promises, and higher costs—that’s Trump’s plan for seniors and working families.”
In addition to making Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option for Medicare, Project 2025 is calling for the revival of the Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model, a Medicare privatization scheme that the Biden administration rebranded as ACO REACH and slightly modified—to the dismay of physicians, healthcare campaigners, and progressive lawmakers who called for the repeal of the Trump-era pilot program.
MAGAs vision with Project 2025 is for very few in the inner circle.
Any private market solution to remove the Administrative State in DC is a good thing. Statistically any program that is run by the government costs the citizens more and more money over time—Healthcare, Education etc.
WJ:
Provoking a discussion based upon false generalities is not going to endear yourself to Angry Bear. Like Clarence’s question to the Colorado AG, your commentary is a BS one the same as Clarence’s question/demand. It is meant to change the topic. We do not do generalities. Got it?
@WJ,
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
~Carl Sagan
Do you mean a useful statistical analysis that removes inflation and population growth and compares to comparable private programs that serve similar functions?
I agree Medicare Advantage plans are a bad idea for most who can afford traditional Medicare which is not free like many of the MA plans. However they are better than almost any plan offered through ObamaCare. Advantage plans are currently being scrutinized in a bipartisan way in Congress, so unlikely Trump or his allies would get away with this. There are practical ways to fix SS and Medicare but politics and finger pointing keep getting in the way. And eventually it will be too late.
Bill:
Why are MA plans better? What gives them the ability to compete against traditional SS and for that matter PPACA plans?
Bill:
MA plans theoretically mimic traditional SS benefits. However they are HMOs. Being for profit Insurance companies, they will obviously try to deny certain claims to maximize profit. Many choose the plans because the insurer may not require the $175 monthly cost of Part B. Additionally many lure customers with additional Vision and Dental plans. My wife signed up for a PPACA plan when I retired and lost my healthcare coverage. The government subsidy for the plan was $1000/mn (Non-smoker), her cost was $0. The annual deductable was $6000. In otherwords, the insurance company would receive up to $19000 before the insurance would kick in. Additionally, we live 15 miles from the nearest and best regional hospital which is in another state. Unless we were willing to purchase one of the expensive Gold Plans, it was not included in her network. My daughter had a PPACA plan and needed urgent care. Although there was an urgent care facility minutes away, across the border, the nearest in network facility was nearly an hour away. Finally, if you take a look at United Healthcare’s stock chart, you will notice the trajectory of the price changed quite dramatically around the time the Affordable Care Act was passed. IMO, this was a massive transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to the healtcare insurers. This is what you get when you let the insurers write the legislation.
Bill the “commenter:”
Just to make sure people can identify us.
The government subsidy for the plan was $1000/mn (Non-smoker), her cost was $0. The annual deductible was $6000. In other words, the insurance company would receive up to $19000 before the insurance would kick in.
There is no argument commercial healthcare and healthcare insurance is a rip off. Right from the beginning if it was Medicare for All or single-payer (Kip Sullivan), 20% would come off of the cost of healthcare. I have been writing on this issue for a long time. Cost of healthcare services would be less too. Even the states can not negotiate a good rate with healthcare and then there are the commercial interests who influence state politicians.
That is not the fault of Medicare or the PPACA. It is owned by politicians and commercial healthcare. The former editor to a popular healthcare magazine trades stock. He calls the PPACA Obamacare; but when he writes PPACA, you know what he is referring to. I stopped talking to him on one site as he was wrong on his dates, and I would have had to nuke the place to get my point across. There is a lot of hypocrisy and prejudice out there.
Is the PPACA perfect, nope. It arrived at it current structure due to one politician.
We also missed out on Long Term care as Kennedy died shortly after the PPACA passed. I would love to meet Lieberman, the Senator from Aetna. “Why Joe Lieberman is holding Barack Obama to ransom over healthcare.” And today Joe is playing games with a No Labels party along with Joe Manchin another ransom taker.
It is important for you to know how we reached this point in time.
If I were to tell you it is important for you to know what you are getting into with your selection. It is a difficult task for even you who appears to have a brain. MMany people are not fortunate enough to be able weave in and out of the particulars. Cost is not the only option as to what you should do some things as opposed to others.
Forty+ years of working in Supply Chain. Getting a CPIM or a CPM in supply chain is now a commercial business. I wonder how many of the instructors have planned materials and lived with the results of their planning? People recite from their classes rather than having the practical experience of working in the industry and knowing whether a system works or not and how it works. We already know a computer recites only what is input.
The same holds true for providing healthcare insurance. Except, the buyers of it put their trust in what is being sold to them which is almost impossible for them to gauge whether what was sold to them is the right plan for what the health is like and where they live. Medicare does provide healthcare at a far lesser cost than commercial MA or the PPACA. The latter of which would have been far less costly for those 55 and older.
Hey Lieberman, can you guess what I am thinking right now?
I am on traditional Medicare, have Plan N, and Part D. A few decades ago, I wondered what would happen to us as we aged out and if we needed Long Term Care. I signed us up for a plan with a commercial healthcare LTC company. Four years of LTC and then we have to die. We pay for Medicare through our SS. we pay for our Plan N at $300/month for both of us. Part D is a freebie for Level one and two generics.
I am a capitalist at heart. Capitalist driven innovation is at the heart of what sets America apart from other nations. That said, we spend at leat three times the amount on healtcare in this country as the next closetest nation. However, we are getting sicker. Our doctor’s have become a bunch of pill pushers and the number one driver of backrupcy filings is healthcare costs. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when profits are involved, there is no insentive to make us healthier. It will take a lot of work to right the ship but campaign finance would be a great place to start.
Bill:
Either use William or Bill. Do not change.
MA Plans do not mimic traditional SS healthcare plans. MA is more confining than Part A and B and also the Supplemental plans all of which I can take anywhere. MA plans do not allow such. The problem with Supplemental Plans is they grow to be more expensive over time. The same holds true with MA Plans by way of allowance as to where you can go which can change by choice of MA companies.
I have no way of judging your daughter’s plan. If she is low in income, she can get a better plan. Indeed, the structure for PPACA was by compromise with political interests. Claiming it is not good is rather specious. In the last two years, coverage has been changed dramatically and more people are covered under the PPACA or Medicaid.
Commercial MA plans are not free, they are heavily subsidized. They over code their patients, reject care to subscribers, and change their caretaker Network (doctors, etc.) going to the lowest bidder. MA can not compete head-to-head with traditional Medicare.
All can afford Part A and Part B. If they can not and their income is low, Medicaid comes into play. Over time, most may not be able to afford Supplemental Plans which are Commercial in nature and are not subsidized.
What I am finding with Supplemental phone calls are sent to the Philippines if you have questions about your policy. Yhey are wonder and truly nice people who have impeccable English. I have worked with them for years in the Philippines and in the US via nighttime phone calls. However, this is done due to a profit motive and denigrates care to seniors.
@Bill,
Medicare Advantage isn’t “free.” Apart from co-pays and deductibles, you have to pay Part B. And the lived experience of Medicare Advantage users is claims denials. If your claim is denied, it isn’t “free.” You’re stuck with the bill.
Then, of course, the upcoding by Medicare Advantage isn’t free for American taxpayers, either.
Bill
Advantage plans are currently being scrutinized in a bipartisan way in Congress, so unlikely Trump or his allies would get away with this. There are practical ways to fix SS and Medicare but politics and finger pointing keep getting in the way. And eventually it will be too late.
Social Security is fine the way it is. If you read here often enough, it would take one tenth of one percent increase in the tax over the next ten years to fix it for the next 75 years. SS has already said this would work. There may even be opportunities to skip a year of an increase. That is the only fix it needs.
The increase in the taxable limits is suggested because many people who were taxed to a higher income now escape it sooner. It kind of makes sense to bring them back into the fold.
Finger-pointing is important as Repubs wish to make SS commercial or eliminate it. Healthcare is overpriced due to commercial interests so why should we not discriminate against those who wish to do so and the politicians who are for it? If the latter wishes such, they should give up their retirement and join us.
Do Members of Congress Pay Social Security Taxes? of Congress Pay Social Security Taxes?
Bill:
Retirement benefits/pensions in general have always been more lucrative for government and union employes. We’re getting off topic here but my two brother in-laws, a teacher and teamster, both retired comfortably in their early 50s with very lucrative pensions. Buying votes is not cheap. I was an engineer in the private sector for 45 years without a defined pension. I pray my retirement savings don’t run out before I do.
Bill the commenter:
You are ok. You are adding issues which many people do not know of as they age.
Are they sabotaging themselves? They are much more effective in their mission ~ sabotage America ~ ruling from the minority. Seniors are a big voting demographic to piss off
very discouraging.
i am in a pay or die situation myself. referred to a specialist i find myself faced with a doctor more interested in my wallet than my health. i feel strip searched for my assets. need a photo i.d., proof of insurance, “co pay”? what the hell is that in terms of what to bring for a first appointment. they tell me to come in twenty minutes before the appointment…as if my time is worth nothing to me and i don’t have other critical things to take care of…but i guess strip searches take time.
it seems to be the new business plan of doctors.
sadly, i don’t think you are going to win the battle against Medicare Advantage. the Reptile hearted beings from outer space have taken over and they just keep marching on despite our squeals. I don’t know if the Democrat fighting retreat is for real or just part of the show.
Bill the commenter
I may have lost the thread, but
I am a capitalist at heart, too. But the capitalist fundamentalists tend to be blind when it comes to the simple fact that there are some problems that capitalism is not good at. And there is nothing immoral or dangerous when the government allows people to form a cooperative approach to those problems.
I would not like to see Socialism for All Things. I am very not liking the “Capitalism for All Things:Government is Bad” people and the country they are turning us into.
If, as Bill the Haskell says, you have a brain, please take a deeper look at what you think you see. for example, it may be true that medicare advantage is cheaper for the customer, but only because it is being paid for by the rest of us, Look behind it and see the scam. Decide to profit from the scam and you become part of it, and an enabler of what will come from it. It works a little like the big company that builds a store across the street from a little company and drives them out of business by offering them lower prices….then using its monopoly to raise prices…or just continuing to suck from the commonwealth which it also “owns” , destroying it in the process.
not offering the little company “them” lower prices
but offering us “the them” lower prices.
i learned to resist the bait, but eventually people succumb.