Medicare Advantage: The numbers speak volumes

The Center for Health and Democracy put together these facts illustrating the high cost we pay for Medicare Advantage, both financially and physically. In Medicare Advantage, our taxpayer dollars are not covering medically necessary care, as required, but rather end up in the pockets of corporate shareholders and executives. Consequently, the health and well-being of Medicare Advantage enrollees is at risk and thousands of enrollees die needlessly each year, according to one NBER report.

• Revenue generated by UnitedHealth from taxpayer dollars in the Medicare
  Advantage and Medicaid program: $160 billion
• Number of prior authorizations Medicare Advantage plans required in 2022: 46
  million
• Amount that Big Insurance overcharges the government by in the Medicare
  Advantage program each year: $140 billion
• Probability of dying after pancreatic cancer surgery with Medicare Advantage
  compared to with Traditional Medicare: 1.9 times more likely
• Probability of dying after gastrointestinal cancer surgery with Medicare
  Advantage compared to with Traditional Medicare: 1.4 times more likely
• Probability of dying after liver cancer surgery with Medicare Advantage
  compared to with Traditional Medicare: 1.4 times more likely
• Profits raked in by Big Insurance, which run Medicare Advantage plans: $71
  billion
• Compensation of the highest paid Big Insurance CEO in 2023: $22.1 million
  Percentage of Medicare Advantage plans requiring prior authorization for acute
  hospital stays: 98 percent
• Percentage of times Traditional Medicare requires prior authorization for acute
  hospital stays: 0 percent
• Percentage of Medicare Advantage plans requiring Step Therapy for medications
  covered under Part B: 46 percent
• Number of times Traditional Medicare requires Step Therapy before covering the drug
  prescribed by your doctor: Never

Here’s more from Just Care:

• Medicare Advantage plans denied two million prior authorization requests in 2021
• The wrong choice of Medicare Advantage plan could kill you
• Medicare Advantage insurers increasingly use step therapy for cancer drugs, delaying care
• What we don’t know about Medicare Advantage plans
• Medicare Advantage plans continue to endanger hospitals and patients