Anyone on Medicare that isn’t on a Medicare Advantage plan is keenly aware of the constant phone calls promoting this overt attempt to privatize Medicare into a profit orientated component of our health care insurance industry. Make no mistake about it, no Medicare Advantage plan is traditional Medicare. It is private health coverage shamelessly marketed as Medicare and at some point, you become keenly aware, particularly if you get seriously ill, of the profit-making interests of those private insurance companies and the insensitive and draconian impulses that typify most major corporations in the US and throughout the world.
The roots of Medicare Advantage started in the 1970s with some managed care plans through private insurance companies, but that was very limited. It wasn’t until 1997 that Medicare Advantage began its goal to take over health insurance for all of those aged 65 and older and move Medicare from a low administrative cost (around 3%) national insurance plan to insurance designed to generate profitability at the expense of patient care. Slightly less than 50% of all those over 65 receive healthcare through the Medicare Advantage program and this number is climbing each year, understandable given the relentless marketing being done by the private health insurance industry. Once the market share of Medicare Advantage plans reaches about 60-70%, the demise of Medicare is inevitable and everyone will be beholding to the cold, calculating whims of for-profit health insurance providers.
It is important to understand that the US has the highest per capita health care costs in the world and nowhere else on this planet do households experience health care-induced bankruptcy. For this high per capita health care costs, you would think the US health care outcomes would be the best in the world, however, the US health care outcomes rank from the middle to the low end of scale for all developed nations. It seems if you pay the most for your health care and have middle-to-low health care outcomes, drastic changes would be made to improve our health care system.
Health care is one of the areas where legalized bribery (thanks to the Supreme Court a few decades ago that legalized whoever has the most money has the most free speech) flourishes in our election process. For example, the pharmaceutical industry has 3 lobbyists for every member of Congress to protect their right to swindle Americans who have to pay the highest drug prices in the developed world. The notion that the US is exceptional is not supported by a health care system that is dysfunctional and corrupted by greed. Everyone should be entitled to an affordable health care system that focuses on the best care for customers, not just the return on investment for the shareholders.
The belief that the private sector will always do a better job with every aspect of government is simply not true. In a Kaiser Family Foundation, the following statements were made about Medicare Advantage in a 2021 published study about the program in 2019. “Medicare spending is higher and growing faster per person for beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage than in traditional Medicare.” As enrollment in Medicare Advantage continues to grow, these trends have important implications for total Medicare spending, and costs incurred by beneficiaries. The reality is that as Medicare Advantage grows its market share over the next few decade or so, tens of billions will be spent that would not have been spent if no privatization of Medicare was taking place. Once privatization efforts eliminate traditional Medicare, watch the private health insurance industry show their true colors and sharpen cost containment efforts in the name of profitability. They will require the customers to pay more through increased copays, deductibles and service denials or have the federal government subsidize their plans more in the name of increased profitability. Capitalism is not an altruistic endeavor and the privatization of Medicare is no exception to the underlying premise of Capitalism to create wealth by providing goods and services needed by the public.
So, if you are currently receiving traditional Medicare, expect to be harassed relentlessly over the next few years by the persistent phone calls about switching to Medicare Advantage to continue this privatization effort that ends with the elimination of traditional Medicare. Once traditional Medicare is eliminated, watch for cuts in benefits, higher copays, larger deductibles, and all the things everyone dislikes about private health insurance providers. The dilemma is that right now what Medicare Advantage is offering is very enticing and will likely save healthy seniors money, however, should you get seriously ill your costs will quickly escalate way beyond what you would have experienced with traditional Medicare. The health insurance industry is playing the long game by getting you into health care coverage that is almost a no-brainer to choose at this time. This could be problematic if you get seriously ill and will be much less beneficial once those over 65 have no choice and the providers focus on profit much more than the needs of their now captured customers. Always remember capitalism is not about being benevolent, but about making the most money legally, and sometimes the legality can be questioned, for the owner class not the working class.
