{"id":261091,"date":"2025-05-28T04:57:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T04:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/keep-corporations-out-of-public-health-care\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T04:57:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T04:57:30","slug":"keep-corporations-out-of-public-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=261091","title":{"rendered":"Keep Corporations Out of Public Health Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/progressive.org\/downloads\/21787\/download\/HealthcareMoney.jpg?cb=e0fe7b402b0719d2b3879aeba4858ebd\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"content\" data-transition=\"content\" data-loop=\"false\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"lead\">On May 1, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/media\/1398796\/dl\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (filed)\">filed<\/a> a federal lawsuit alleging that three major health insurance companies that profit from Medicare Advantage\u2014a program which allows individuals who qualify for both inpatient and outpatient Medicare benefits <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medicare.org\/articles\/what-is-the-difference-between-medicare-parts-a-b-c-and-d\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (to receive both)\">to receive both<\/a> bundled through a private broker\u2014conspired with other privately-owned Medicare Advantage insurance brokers to rip off the system.<\/p>\n<p>According to the lawsuit, from 2016 through at least 2021, the health insurance companies Aetna, Humana, and Elevance (formerly known as Anthem) engaged in an illegal kickback scheme with insurance brokers eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote. The Justice Department alleges that the insurance companies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/united-states-files-false-claims-act-complaint-against-three-national-health-insurance\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (paid)\">paid<\/a> hundreds of millions of dollars to insurance brokers (who help people navigate the Medicare Advantage system) in exchange for enrollments into the insurers\u2019 plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, according to the lawsuit, Aetna and Humana used the kickback scheme to \u201cpressure brokers to enroll fewer Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities, whom the insurers perceived as more expensive to cover.\u201d The lawsuit states that in response to \u201cfinancial inducements,\u201d brokers \u201cstrategically directed disabled beneficiaries away from Aetna and Humana plans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When I first heard about all of this, I was shocked. But the more I think about it now, the less surprised I am. After all, the only reason that private health insurance companies take part in Medicare Advantage\u2014also known as Medicare Part C\u2014is to squeeze every penny of profit out of the Medicare system that they possibly can.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medicare.gov\/basics\/get-started-with-medicare\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (To be eligible)\">To be eligible<\/a> to receive health care insurance coverage under Medicare, one must be over sixty-five years old, disabled, or have end-stage renal disease. Anyone signed up for Medicare <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medicare.gov\/publications\/12026-understanding-medicare-advantage-plans.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (can opt out)\">can opt out<\/a> of traditional public Medicare coverage\u2014which includes Medicare Part A for inpatient coverage and Part B for outpatient coverage\u2014and instead receive health care coverage under a private plan offered by one of the insurers participating in Medicare Advantage. About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/medicare\/issue-brief\/medicare-advantage-in-2024-enrollment-update-and-key-trends\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (half of all Medicare enrollees)\">half of all Medicare enrollees<\/a> have chosen to do that. Thus, in 2024, Medicare paid approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/medicare\/issue-brief\/medicare-advantage-in-2024-enrollment-update-and-key-trends\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window ($462 billion)\">$462 billion<\/a> to Medicare Advantage insurance companies, which was more than half of the total Medicare financial outlay for the year.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit says that Medicare beneficiaries who are considering switching to Medicare Advantage rely on the impartiality of brokers to help them find the plan that they think is best for them. Therefore, brokers wield \u201cconsiderable influence over our nation\u2019s most vulnerable citizens\u201d as they attempt to make a decision \u201cthat can have significant health and financial consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This all serves as an important reminder of why it\u2019s necessary to generate public support for programs like traditional public Medicare in the first place\u2014because the private marketplace doesn\u2019t give the slightest damn about serving people it doesn\u2019t see as profitable. There need to be places where anyone can go, services that anyone can access, where the bottom line is to meet a need rather than to make a lot of money.<\/p>\n<p>And when we let programs like Medicare Advantage turn these places into profit centers, this kind of thing is bound to happen. The only way to assure that this will never happen is to remember the motivation of those who are so hot to privatize public programs\u2014and to never give them the chance to do so.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 1, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a federal lawsuit alleging that three major health insurance companies that profit from Medicare Advantage\u2014a program which allows individuals who qualify for both inpatient and outpatient Medicare benefits to receive both bundled through a private broker\u2014conspired with other privately-owned Medicare Advantage insurance brokers to rip [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":261092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[760,43070,16930,597,27857,13301,11652,43278,5294,43277],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-261091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-care","tag-corporations","tag-dispatches","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-medicaid","tag-medicare","tag-mike-ervin","tag-public","tag-smart-ass-cripple"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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