“Protect Medicare” Established to Fight Privatization

Susan Rogers, MD (current president of Physicians for a National Health Program) announced on March 30th the creation of Protect Medicare.  From the new organization's home page: 

“For decades, commercial insurance companies have chipped away at our crucial public health programs. The profits they realize from Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care are both lucrative and unconscionable…but they have their eyes set on an even bigger prize: Traditional Medicare. The newly announced Medicare REACH program will allow third-party middlemen to pocket up to 40% of the dollars dedicated to patients in their care. We need to end this ruinous experiment and recommit to a humane, efficient, and truly public Medicare program.”

As reported in earlier articles in NWCitizen (see links below), in 2021, our local PeaceHealth branch created one of these for-profit entities. The purpose was to glom onto Medicare patients whose primary physicians were part of the PeaceHealth organization. In fact, not only have they already done this without the patient's knowledge or consent, but if you are on Medicare, you may have already been captured by this PeaceHealth program. Next time you visit your primary care doctor, ask them if you are part of ACO REACH. At present, the only escape from this cosa nostra di salute is to find a primary care doctor outside of PeaceHealth.  

This raid on Medicare is part of an overall effort to privatize government programs containing large amounts of money. Were the famous bank-robber Willy Sutton alive today, he would have responded to a question about why anyone would rob this government program by saying, “That is where the money is.” Your Social Security is next. Mark my words.

With this new organization, Protect Medicare, we have an entity that is backed nationwide by physicians who will fight with and for you to keep Medicare out of private hands. You can take immediate steps to help by going to their website to sign the petition and the letter to Health and Human Services,  which is the cabinet department that controls Medicare. You can also visit the ACO REACH webpage (here) which is curious in that the U.S. government actually outlines, with great fanfare and seriousness, its plans to allow for the theft of your Medicare dollars under the cover name of “innovation.” You can warn your friends and family of this attack on medical care through social media (here). Call or write your members of Congress in Washington DC and the legislature in Olympia.  

U.S. House of Representatives https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

U.S. Senate https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm 

Washington State Legislature https://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/ContactUs.aspx