{"id":24776,"date":"2023-01-15T12:18:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T20:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=24776"},"modified":"2023-01-15T12:18:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T20:18:45","slug":"here-is-the-truth-medicare-advantage-is-neither-medicare-nor-an-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/01\/15\/here-is-the-truth-medicare-advantage-is-neither-medicare-nor-an-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Here is the Truth: Medicare Advantage Is Neither Medicare Nor an Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Medicare<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“During my two decades in the industry,” writes Potter, “I was part of an annual collaborative effort to persuade lawmakers that Medicare Advantage was far superior to traditional Medicare \u2014 real Medicare.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo:\u00a0designer491<\/a>\u00a0\/ iStock via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicare Advantage is a money-making scam. I should know. I helped to sell it.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WENDELL POTTER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan 14, 2023 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, well-funded lobbyists from big health insurance companies are leading a campaign on Capitol Hill to get Members of Congress and Senators of both parties to sign on to a letter designed to put them on the record \u201cexpressing strong support\u201d for the scam that is Medicare Advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here is the truth: Medicare Advantage is neither Medicare nor an advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I should know. I am a former health-care executive who helped develop PR and marketing schemes to sell these private insurance plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my two decades in the industry, I was part of an annual collaborative effort to persuade lawmakers that Medicare Advantage was far superior to traditional Medicare\u2014real Medicare. We knew that having Congressional support for Medicare Advantage was essential to ensuring ever-growing profits\u2014at the expense of seniors and taxpayers. We even organized what we insiders derisively called \u201cgranny fly-ins.\u201d We brought seniors enrolled in our Medicare replacement plans to Washington, equipped them with talking points, and had them fan out across Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of joining with the corporate lobbyists in extolling the benefits of Medicare Advantage while obscuring the program\u2019s numerous problems… Congress should work to lower the cost of health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regret my participation in those efforts. Over the 20 years since Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act, the Medicare Advantage program has become an enormous cash cow for insurers, in large part because of the way they have rigged the risk-scoring system to maximize profits. As Kaiser Health News reported last month<\/a>, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated \u201cnet overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans by unconfirmed medical diagnoses at $11.4 billion for 2022<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d That was for just one year. Imagine what the cumulative historical total would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Medicare and Medicaid programs have become so lucrative and profitable for insurers that UnitedHealth Group, the nation\u2019s largest health insurer and the biggest in terms of Medicare Advantage enrollment, got 72% of its health plan revenues in 2021 from taxpayers and seniors. In fact, all<\/em> of UnitedHealth\u2019s enrollment growth since 2012 has been in government programs. Enrollment in the company\u2019s employer and individual health plans shrank by 370,000 between September 30, 2012, and September 30, 2022. Much of the $81 billion UnitedHealth collected in revenues in the third quarter of last year was subsidized by American tax dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle\u2013and both sides of the Capitol\u2013are at long last calling for more scrutiny of the Medicare Advantage program. Sen. Chuck Grassley has called for aggressive oversight of Medicare Advantage plans to recoup overcharges and was quoted in the Kaiser Health News story. As was Sen. Sherrod Brown, who said that fixing Medicare Advantage is not a partisan issue. And as Rep. Katie Porter commented, \u201cWhen big insurance bills taxpayers for care it never intends to deliver, it is stealing our tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that Democrats and Republicans alike care about the financial stability of the Medicare program. Instead of joining with the corporate lobbyists in extolling the benefits of Medicare Advantage while obscuring the program\u2019s numerous problems, and in the process helping Big Insurance make massive profits, Congress should work to lower the cost of health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicare Advantage is a money-making scam. I should know. I helped to sell it.And I\u2019m going to continue working alongside patients, caregivers, and elected officials to address the problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WENDELL POTTER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wendell Potter is the former vice president for corporate communications at Cigna. He is now president of Business for Medicare for All and author of bestselling books Deadly Spin and Nation on the Take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“During my two decades in the industry,” writes Potter, “I was part of an annual collaborative effort to persuade lawmakers that Medicare Advantage was far superior to traditional Medicare \u2014 real Medicare.” \u00a0(Photo:\u00a0designer491\u00a0\/ iStock via Getty Images) Medicare Advantage is a money-making scam. I should know. I helped to sell… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24777,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776\/revisions\/24777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}