The right-wing policy agenda written for a new Donald Trump presidency would “greatly accelerate” efforts to privatize Medicare
Last year, for the first time ever, a majority of Americans eligible for Medicare were on privatized Medicare Advantage plans. If Republicans win the presidential race this year, the push to fully privatize Medicare, the government health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities, will only intensify.
Conservative operatives have already sketched out what the GOP’s policy agenda would look like in the early days of a new Donald Trump presidency. As Rolling Stone has detailed, the proposed Project 2025 agenda is radically right-wing. One item buried in the 887-page blueprint has attracted little attention thus far, but would have a monumental impact on the health of America’s seniors and the future of one of America’s most popular social programs: a call to “make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option” for people who are newly eligible for Medicare.
Such a policy would hasten the end of the traditional Medicare program, as well as its foundational premise: that seniors can go to any doctor or provider they choose. The change would be a boon for private health insurers — which generate massive profits and growing portions of their revenues from Medicare Advantage plans — and further consolidate corporate control over the United States health care system.
Medicare advantage is some bullshit I do not understand why people sign up for it, I guess it’s great if you never have to use it.
A lot of the elderly don’t realize they’ve signed up for medicare advantage.
I worked for a drug company giving free money to patients who had insurance but still couldn’t afford the drug (that’s more profitable than charging a sane price in the first place).
It was routine to hear elderly patients saying the insurance told them they were re-signing up for medicare + a medicare supplemental when they’d been switched to a medicare advantage plan with a deductible and a lower coverage percentage.
That is scary AF!!
Yep. If you live in the US and have elderly family members, it’s important to be aware of and involved in their healthcare/insurance stuff. Siphoning off the life savings of dying boomers is BIG business.
They sign up for it because the advertising is insidious. My family member signed up for it because it used the name of a well-known doctor’s group in the area. Sure, they have a deal with said doctor’s group, but it is no better than having the entire field available that medicare would have given.
I see advertising claiming all sorts of token “benefits” you’re missing out on if only you call and “review your coverage”