Privatize! Privatize! Privatize! Trump Picks Dr. Oz to Privatize Medicare and Medicaid

by Scott Creighton

Donald Trump has picked TV celebrity Dr. Oz to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in spite of the fact that he 1. has no experience running such a large agency of any kind and 2. he was recently busted shilling a fake weight loss program to his fans.

Of course, to Dr. Oz, that means TIME TO PRIVATIZE those effective programs so BIG BUSINESS can make some glorious money!

'Dr. Oz has weighed in on Medicare policy, helping to write a 2020 opinion column in Forbes arguing for a universal health coverage system, in which every American not covered by Medicaid would be enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan. The coverage expansion, the column said, would be financed by an “affordable 20 percent payroll tax,” and would eliminate employer health coverage and the government Medicare program.

That strategy would be far out of the mainstream of conservative health policy. In 2019, Vice President Kamala Harris, then a candidate for president, proposed a version of a “Medicare for all” plan with similarities to Dr. Oz’s 2020 idea. Instead of replacing private coverage with a government-run system, as some of her Democratic rivals had done, Ms. Harris called for allowing people to choose between a government Medicare program and plans modeled on Medicare Advantage.' NYT

As you can see, this is just an expansion of Kamala Harris' Big Business giveaway plan in which she at least would have given people the ability to choose between a for-profit run Advantage plan and government run Medicare.

'George Halvorson, former CEO of Kaiser Permanente, and Dr. Mehmet Oz propose here a quick and comprehensive way to provide Americans with universal health-care coverage and better health care, especially poor, underserved communities. How? By having health insurance bought through the highly successful Medicare Advantage program. One-third of people on Medicare have opted for Medicare Advantage because beneficiaries get better care thanks to competing plans. As the authors explain, Medicare Advantage could be expanded quickly and would be infinitely better than the highly-flawed idea of Medicare for All. A timely and important piece, to say the least!' Forbes 2020

For the record, of Medicare recipients, only about 30% choose to use the Advantage plans even AFTER they supposedly offer dental, vision, free food and other little perks (all paid for by the government, not the businesses, BTW)

There is good reason why folks don't want privatized Medicare plans. They are awful. They are terrible. They cost the government MORE than straight Medicare does. And, they are terribly corrupt and famously try their best to get out of paying for care so they can MAKE FUCKING MONEY.

Don't believe me? What rock have you been living under?

'A report released Oct. 17 by the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s investigative subcommittee scrutinizes some of the nation's largest Medicare Advantage insurers for their use of prior authorization and high rates of denials for certain types of care. The subcommittee sought documents and information from the three largest MA insurance companies — UnitedHealthcare, Humana and CVS — and investigated their practice of “intentionally using prior authorization to boost profits by targeting costly yet critical stays in post-acute care facilities.”  

The report found that between 2019 and 2022, UHC, Humana and CVS denied prior authorization requests for post-acute care at far higher rates than other types of care. In 2022, UHC and CVS denied prior authorization requests for post-acute care at approximately three times higher than the companies' overall denial rates, while Humana's prior authorization denial rate for post-acute care was more than 16 times higher than its overall denial rate. The report also found increases in post-acute care service requests subjected to prior authorization and denial rates for long-term acute care hospitals, among other findings.' AMA Oct 17 2024

That was just LAST MONTH. LAST FUCKING MONTH.

And this is what Donald Trump's pick to head up Medicare and Medicaid wants to do with these programs... hand them over and MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY to the SAME BUSINESSES who are literally killing people for profits.

'The criticisms range from deceptive marketing, ghost networks, and patient cherry-picking to unethical prior authorization denials and defrauding the government. In total, MA plans cost the federal government 22% more per patient than if these patients in question were enrolled in traditional Medicare.' Springer June 2024

Medicare Advantage programs COST THE GOVERNMENT MORE PER PATIENT AND PROVIDE MUCH WORSE CARE than Medicare does.

But Big Business can rake in TRILLIONS in profits if this happens.

' Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have been criticized for a number of abuses, including: 

• Unsupported diagnoses: MA companies receive higher payments from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for sicker enrollees. However, taxpayers pay billions of dollars in overpayments each year due to unsupported diagnoses.   

• Upcoding: MA plans may list false or exaggerated diagnoses on patient charts to receive more money.  

• Prior authorization denials: MA insurers may delay or deny prior authorization requests to save money. In 2022, 7.4% of prior authorization requests were denied in full or in part.  

• Deceptive marketing: MA plans may engage in deceptive marketing.  

• Ghost networks: MA plans may use ghost networks.  

• Patient cherry-picking: MA plans may cherry-pick patients.   

Some say that MA plans cost the federal government 22% more per patient than traditional Medicare. Others say that the MA model is broken and that traditional Medicare is more administratively efficient.

Yep. This is what Dr. Oz will bring to the table. The complete privatization of Medicare and FORCING hundreds of millions of poor and working-class people onto the plans that don't work, cost more and will harm the people who are forced onto them.

There's some more of that 'freedom' for you folks. Just like Trump the Populist promised.

Besides, remember in 2016 when Trumpster promised not to touch Medicare and Medicaid?

But you guys keep supporting him like Meryl Nass does. You'll see. You'll see.