Project 2025 would push everyone with Medicare into Medicare Advantage

Project 2025 is the brainchild of The Heritage Foundation and a roadmap for the Republicans if Donald Trump is elected President. If implemented, Project 2025 would push everyone with Medicare into Medicare Advantage, with restricted access to care, instead of enrolling them in Traditional Medicare and allowing them to decide whether they want to enroll in Medicare Advantage. Project 2025 would likely privatize Medicare and endanger the health and well-being of more than 65 million older adults and people with disabilities.

For a start, if President Trump becomes President and he carries out the Medicare goals of Project 2025, people who sign up for Medicare will be enrolled automatically in a Medicare Advantage plan–a corporate health plan the government pays to provide Medicare benefits and rewards for denying care. Who knows if that plan would cover the doctors and hospitals they want to use or provide them with the care they need. So many Medicare Advantage plans are engaged in widespread inappropriate delays and denials of care.

Yes, people would still have the right to switch to Traditional Medicare, the government-administered program that provides coverage from virtually any doctor or hospital anywhere in the United States. But, would they know they could disenroll from Medicare Advantage? Or, would they be locked in, unable to enroll in Traditional Medicare as millions of people in Medicare Advantage are today?

Project 2025 would aggravate health inequalities. As it is, Traditional Medicare is not affordable to most people with Medicare. Because Traditional Medicare lacks an out-of-pocket cap, people also have supplemental coverage to protect themselves financially. But, supplemental coverage is both expensive and not guaranteed. So, until Congress reforms Traditional Medicare to include an out-of-pocket maximum, most people with Medicare have no choice but to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan.

If conservatives prevail, the for-profit corporate health insurers will take over Medicare entirely before long. It’s a cash cow for them. They have the money, the power and the mission to drain the Medicare Trust Fund and drive up their profits. Health care costs for people with Medicare will soar. Those with complex and costly conditions likely will face untold challenges getting the care they need.