More Democrats and Republicans in Congress are speaking out and raising alarms about Medicare Advantage. If Republicans need to find savings to pay for their tax cuts, they need look no further than the $1 trillion in Medicare Advantage overpayments.
A growing number of Republicans are speaking out against these massive government overpayments to Medicare Advantage insurers. At a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, Senator Roger Marshall (KA-Rep) said: “Like Dr. Oz, I thought Medicare Advantage was a good thing when it came out. But, unfortunately, it’s been manipulated. They found loopholes to manipulate and now we’re spending probably $83 billion more a year on Medicare Advantage patients as opposed to if they had been on traditional Medicare…I hope that there’s an opportunity to fix that very broken system that friends across the aisle who speak so boldly about Medicare Advantage that they will vote for reforming it as well whenever we have that opportunity.”
Senator Chuck Grassley (Rep-IO) has expressed similar concerns about Medicare Advantage, as have Senators Bill Cassidy (Rep-LO) and James Lankford (Rep-OK), who recognizes inappropriate denials in Medicare Advantage, which are keeping some hospitals in his state from contracting with MA insurers.
Indeed, increasingly, hospital systems, including some of the best hospital systems in the country are dropping Medicare Advantage contracts.
Seventy-eight Democrats in the House of Representatives wrote HHS Secretary Kennedy and Acting CMS Administrator Carlton to express their concerns about Medicare Advantage overpayments and more.”If Republicans were serious about combating waste, fraud and abuse, they would be focused on Medicare (dis)Advantage plans,” says Representative Pramila Jayapal (CA-Dem) on MSNBC.
Eight Democrats in the Senate sent a similar letter.
Eileen Appelbaum, health economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, explains the Medicare Advantage rip-off here:
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Ten ways Medicare Advantage plans differ from traditional Medicare
- Five things to think about when choosing between traditional Medicare and a Medicare Advantage plan
- Medicare Advantage costs and prior authorization rules impede access to care
- Republicans look to end Medicare Advantage overpayments
- 24 health systems drop their Medicare Advantage contracts
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