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THE DEADLY NEW GOP PLAN TO RAPIDLY PRIVATIZE MEDICARE  
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Thom Hartmann
February 6, 2024
The Hartmann Report
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_ Medicare Advantage is not Medicare: it’s private health insurance
for seniors that’s largely paid for with our tax dollars. They make
their money by routinely denying claims… _

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Want to invest in a scam that lets you make billions with virtually no
risk? If you’re morbidly rich, all you have to do is to open or buy
an insurance company that’s offering Medicare Advantage plans.

And now, Republicans are saying that if they retake the White House
they will change the Medicare rules
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turning 65 will enroll by default into Medicare Advantage rather than
real, traditional Medicare, further enhancing the profits of these
massive, billion-dollar insurance giants while rapidly killing off
real, traditional Medicare.

This is the culmination of a long-term plan.

George W. Bush ran for both Congress (in 1979) and the White House
(2000) promising to privatize Social Security and Medicare. In 2005 he
tried mightily to privatize Social Security
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scheduling a multi-city tour across America to promote the idea.

HE HAD “POLITICAL CAPITAL” FROM WINNING THE 2004 ELECTION BASED ON
HIS “WAR PRESIDENT” CREDENTIAL AND, HE SAID
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HE WAS GOING TO USE IT.

The more he pitched privatized Social Security plans, however, the
more people disliked the idea: Bush gave up about halfway through his
tour. But not to mourn: he’d already taken a tire iron to
Medicare in 2003
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getting half the privatization job done by creating the Medicare
Advantage scam.

IT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST TESTIMONIALS TO THE POWER OF LOBBYING AND
POLITICAL BRIBERY IN MODERN AMERICAN HISTORY.

The amazing part is that Medicare Advantage is _not_ Medicare:
it’s simply private health insurance for seniors that’s largely
paid for with our tax dollars.

WITH REAL MEDICARE, IF YOUR DOCTOR SAYS YOU NEED A TEST OR PROCEDURE,
YOU GET THE TEST OR PROCEDURE. NO QUESTIONS, NO DELAYS, NO HASSLES. NO
PRE-APPROVALS.

WITH MEDICARE ADVANTAGE, THOUGH, BECAUSE IT’S RUN THROUGH GIANT
INSURANCE COMPANIES WHO HAVE TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO SKIM BILLIONS OFF
TO TOP TO SATISFY THEIR SHAREHOLDERS, VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL
REQUIRE PRE-APPROVAL BY YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY.

They make their money by routinely denying roughly 18 percent
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all claims — 1.5 million claims in 2019 alone — leaving Advantage
policy holders with the choice of not getting the tests or procedures
they need or paying for them out-of-pocket. (Real Medicare never
denies any claims, as they don’t need to generate profits for Wall
Street billionaires.)

“ZIGGY” IS A REGULAR CALLER INTO MY RADIO/TV SHOW AND LAST WEEK
SHARED WITH US HIS EXPERIENCE IN THE HOSPITAL’S ER THE WEEK BEFORE.
AS HE WENT FROM TEST TO TEST, PEOPLE WHO CAME INTO THE HOSPITAL AT THE
SAME TIME HAD TO WAIT BECAUSE THE HOSPITAL WAS WAITING FOR PREAPPROVAL
FROM THEIR ADVANTAGE INSURANCE COMPANIES. ONE GUY HAD TO WAIT
OVERNIGHT BECAUSE THE COMPANY WAS SO SLOW IN THEIR APPROVAL.

Ziggy has real, traditional Medicare with a Medigap plan, though, so
he didn’t have to wait for a thing. It gave him an opportunity to
educate the poor suckers around him about the difference between real
Medicare and the so-called Advantage plans that are very
much _not_ Medicare.

In my book _The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness
Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich
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I lay out the story of this scam and how badly so many Americans —
and us American taxpayers — get ripped off by it.

THESE GIANT INSURANCE COMPANIES RIPPED OFF TAXPAYERS TO THE TUNE OF AN
ESTIMATED $140 BILLION, ACCORDING TO A REPORT
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FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM (PNHP)_. IF THERE WAS NO MEDICARE
ADVANTAGE SCAM BLEEDING OFF ALL THAT CASH, REAL MEDICARE COULD BE
EXPANDED
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COVER DENTAL, VISION, AND HEARING AND EVEN END THE NEED FOR MEDIGAP
PLANS.

But for now, the gravy train continues to roll along. The insurance
giants use some of that money to buy legislators and some of it to
dupe seniors into joining their programs. The company (Benefytt) that
hires Joe Namath to pitch Medicare Advantage, for example, was hit
with huge fines by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive
advertising.

The FTC news release laid it out
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“Benefytt pocketed millions selling sham insurance to seniors and
other consumers looking for health coverage,” said Samuel Levine,
Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The company
is being ordered to pay $100 million, and we’re holding its
executives accountable for this fraud.”

Nonetheless, the Centers for Medicare Services continues to let
Benefytt and Namath market these products: welcome to the power of
organized money.

AND IT’S _HUGE_ ORGANIZED MONEY. MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS ARE
MASSIVE CASH COWS FOR THE COMPANIES THAT RUN THEM. AS CIGNA PREPARES
FOR A MERGER, FOR EXAMPLE, THEY’RE BEING FORCED TO SELL OF THEIR
MEDICARE ADVANTAGE DIVISION: IT’S SCHEDULED TO GO FOR $3.7 BILLION
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NOBODY PAYS THAT KIND OF MONEY UNLESS THEY EXPECT ENORMOUS RETURNS.

Traditional Medicare has been serving Americans well since 1965:
it’s one of the most efficient systems to pay for healthcare
that’s ever been devised. But nobody was making a buck off it, so
nobody could share those profits with greedy politicians. Enter
Medicare Advantage, courtesy of George W. Bush.

While several bills have been offered in Congress to do something
about this — including the _Save Medicare Act
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would end these companies ability to use the word “Medicare” in
their policy names and advertising — the amounts of money sloshing
around DC in the healthcare space now are almost unfathomable.

IT’S ALL ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF HOW FIVE CORRUPT REPUBLICANS ON THE US
SUPREME COURT LEGALIZING POLITICAL BRIBERY HAS SCREWED AVERAGE
AMERICANS AND MADE A HANDFUL OF INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES AND INVESTORS
FABULOUSLY RICH.

If Democrats this fall can take a large enough majority of the House
and Senate and hold the White House, perhaps we can do something about
this. We can certainly stop them from pushing newly-65 seniors into
Advantage programs as the default.

The _For The People Act_, which was killed when Joe Manchin and
Kirsten Sinema went along with a united Republican filibuster in the
Senate, would have significantly cut back on the power of dark money
and campaign bribes.

If we can finally pass it or something like it, then we can try to fix
real Medicare without our politicians having to dance to the tune of
Big Insurance’s Big Money.

_Thom Hartmann is the NY Times bestselling author 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* Attack on Medicare
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* GOP
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* Medicare Advantage
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* medicare privatization
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