*** Please forward widely ***
(Virtual Educational Forum)
Privatizing Medicare – Part 2
How It Really Works!
Tuesday, February 15, from 7:30-9:00 PM via Zoom
Note: You can join by phone or computer. Details will be emailed to those who RSVP. Closed captions will be available.
The event will be recorded. Within a week of the event, a link to the video will be sent to all registrants.
Public Medicare has worked well since its inception in 1965. With 97% of physicians and hospitals accepting Medicare, it has given seniors confidence that care will be available with a wide choice of healthcare providers. As a single payer non-profit system, Traditional Medicare is financially efficient and equitable, but its future is threatened by the growing encroachment of for-profit private companies into its operation.
The privatization of Medicare is taking different forms. Private insurances funded by the Medicare program have expanded with the misleading title of Medicare Advantage. Now Direct Contracting Entities (DCEs) are being introduced by the Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Center through the claim that they will help control costs. What they really are is a vehicle for bringing recipients of traditional public Medicare under a private umbrella. Since private insurers’ goal is to maximize their profit, they limit spending on healthcare by providing less care to patients and lower reimbursement for doctors and hospitals.
Why is this happening? The Innovation Center claims the use of fee-for-service reimbursement (reimbursement of providers per visit) is responsible for the rising cost of health care in this country. Their attempts to create “alternate payment models” provide the excuse for introducing the private sector into the public healthcare system, despite the clear track record of failure to control escalating private insurance premiums and provider costs. Experience from around the world shows that only a system like single-payer healthcare can truly make healthcare affordable and universally accessible.
Join us on February 15th to learn how privatization of Medicare works, why its cost-saving rationale defies all the evidence, and what we can do to stop it.
Stay safe and keep acting for life-saving change,
Oliver Fein, MD
Board Chair, Physicians for a National Health Program – New York Metro
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook or the hashtags #PassNYHealth #NYHealthAct #MedicareForAll
