As the political wars materialize during the next nine months, Traditional Medicare will be thrown under the bus by those who want to privatize Medicare.
Others will try to restructure Medicare from a social insurance program to an “entitlement”, and propose block grants changing it from a defined benefit to a defined contribution program which nine states including Kansas have requested under the Health Care Compact legislation passed in 2014.
We will hear that privatizing Medicare is a much better model, and that Medicare cannot be sustained for our children because it ‘just won’t be there due to insolvency.’
But privatizing Medicare is not the answer. What’s true is the cozy arrangement between some members of both political parties in Congress to keep their commitments to the private insurance industry by overfunding the Medicare Advantage program by paying about 14% more per member than what Traditional Medicare members receive.
We have learned through an investigative study by the Center for Public Integrity updated in January 2015 that taxpayers are not being well served when “nearly $70 billion in improper payments to Medicare Advantage Plans have occurred from 2008 through 2013, mostly overbillings according to government estimates.”
The Center reported Federal officials refused to identify health plans suspected of overcharging Medicare, citing agency policy that keeps many business records confidential. The Center is suing to make the records public.
Marilyn Tavenner, once a public servant went from being the head of Medicare (CMS) to being the CEO of the lobbying group for the health insurance industry, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), in just six months.
When asked about her priorities, she told the New York Times on July 15, 2015 that, “she wanted to protect Medicare Advantage, the program that manages care for more than 30 percent of the 55 million beneficiaries of Medicare.”
Read the complete report from The Center for Public Integrity here:
It’s time for Congress to end the corporate welfare in the form of continued subsidy overpayments for private Medicare Advantage plans and level the playing field by paying them the same amount received by Traditional Medicare beneficiaries.
Ms. Tavenner should have echoed the wishes of the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission in their March 2015 report to Congress which states, “Medicare payment systems should not unduly favor one component of the program over the other.”
The Medicare Coach
