The Insidious Creep of Medicare (Dis)Advantage

Guest Writer Carol Kemp retired from a large, multinational technology company that forced its retirees to join a Medicare Advantage plan or lose all company health care benefits.  She chose to lose her benefits.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is holding a public comment period, which ends March 1.

The proposal is for a 3.7% increase in payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2025. 

You can make your public comment at:  

www.regulations.gov/…

Here is the comment I posted:

I am writing to oppose the 3.7% increase in payments to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans in 2025.

Medicare Advantage plans are overcharging taxpayers by up to $140 billion per year by using unethical practices such as upcoding (diagnosing patients as sicker than they are). In addition, they delay and deny necessary treatment as a means to pad their profit margins.

The excess funding that MA plans receive each year would more than cover an expansion of traditional Medicare to include dental, hearing, and vision; or totally eliminate Part B premiums; or fund the Medicare Part D prescription drug program.

More than half of eligible Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in MA plans with projections of 70% by 2030. In addition, four insurers now control 70% of the market.

The largest company, UnitedHealth, saw revenues of $371.6 billion in 2023, an increase of almost 15% over 2022. Net earnings increased by $1 billion to $22.3 billion. Andrew Witty, CEO, made over $20 million in total compensation in 2022, 300 times the median employee pay.

Medicare Advantage programs are proving very profitable to these insurers, with gross margins at least double their other health care markets.

Medicare was established by a Democratic president to provide health insurance for older Americans. It is one of our most popular government programs and has helped millions of seniors; however, it has not kept pace with the rising costs of medical care. The cost of Part B premiums and the lack of dental, hearing, and vision coverage, as well as prescription drugs, have made it unaffordable for many.

The focus of a Democratic administration should be to strengthen and expand Medicare rather than contributing to its further erosion by rewarding MA providers with additional funding. Without aggressive action, Medicare will cease to exist for the next generation of senior citizens. Democrats should not berate the other party for its continuous threats to Medicare when they are allowing it to die in the long run.