As the Medicare Advantage program continues to grow (and as Wall Street investors continue to profit), advocates are pushing back against the many ways that corporate health insurers are shortchanging seniors and people with disabilities. News reports, investigations, and opinion pieces have all highlighted troubling behavior on the part of Medicare profiteers.
Interested in developing your own letter or op-ed? See our detailed suggestions on writing and submitting an opinion piece.
More Perfect Union: How Corporations Raided Medicare
New York Times report exposes Medicare Advantage
In October 2022, The New York Times published a stunning rundown of fraud allegations and lawsuits against Medicare Advantage insurers, many of whom have lined up to participate in Medicare Direct Contracting and REACH.
Medicare Advantage news stories and opinion pieces
Medicare advocates have been raising the alarm about Medicare Advantage and the threat it poses to seniors and people with disabilities.
News stories:
- “Company Behind Joe Namath Medicare Advantage Ads Has Long Rap Sheet of Misconduct,” by Matthew Cunningham-Cook, The American Prospect, Feb. 22, 2024
- “Republicans Are Planning to Totally Privatize Medicare — And Fast,” by Andrew Perez, Rolling Stone, Feb. 5, 2024
- “Older Americans say they feel trapped in Medicare Advantage plans,” by Sarah Jane Tribble, NPR, Jan. 3, 2024
- “UnitedHealth used secret rules to restrict rehab care for seriously ill Medicare Advantage patients,” by Bob Herman and Casey Ross, STAT News, Dec. 28, 2023
- “7 Questions to Ask to Protect Yourself From Medicare Advantage Scams,” by Diane Archer, Common Dreams, Nov. 21, 2023
- “‘Deny, deny, deny’: By rejecting claims, Medicare Advantage plans threaten rural hospitals and patients, say CEOs,” by Gretchen Morgenson, NBC News, Oct. 31, 2023
- “Hospitals, doctors drop private Medicare plans over payment disputes,” by Ken Alltucker, USA Today, Oct. 27, 2023
- “Insurers Are Gaming Medicare — To The Tune Of $140 Billion,” by Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Lucy Dean Stockton, The Lever, Oct. 4, 2023
- “Medicare Advantage supplemental health plans draw scrutiny,” by Jessie Hellmann, Roll Call, May 22, 2023
- “Medicare Advantage was meant to curb federal healthcare spending. It’s costing more instead,” by Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2023
- “How Medicare Advantage plans dodged auditors and overcharged taxpayers by millions,” by Fred Schulte and Holly K. Hacker, NPR, Dec. 12, 2022
- “Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is ‘Heist’ by Private Firms to Defraud the Public,” interview with Wendell Potter, Democracy Now, Oct. 12, 2022
- “Don’t Touch My Medicare!” by Trudy Lieberman, Harper’s Magazine, Nov. 2016
Opinion pieces:
- “The Truth Behind Medicare (Dis)Advantage’s Disinformation Campaign,” by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Wendell Potter, Newsweek, March 29, 2024
- “Medicare Advantage is bad for patients and bad for investors,” by Wendell Potter and Dr. Philip Verhoef, STAT Opinion, Feb. 28, 2024
- “Medicare Advantage is giving away billions to corporate insurers. It’s time we put a stop to it,” by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Dr. Diljeet Singh, The Hill, Nov. 17, 2023
- “It’s Time to End the Medicare Advantage Scam,” by Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Mark Pocan, and Wendell Potter, The Nation, Dec. 9, 2022
- “Millennials can save Medicare,” by Alexa D’Angelo, New York Daily News, Dec. 2, 2022
- “Medicare Advantage? More like Medicare Disadvantage,” by Helaine Olen, The Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2022
- “Enrolling in Medicare? What you should know about TV time, fraud and what’s next,” by Dr. Robert Stone, The (Bloomington, Ind.) Herald-Times, Nov. 17, 2022
- “How Medicare Advantage Scams Seniors,” by Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Wendell Potter, Newsweek, Nov. 15, 2022
- “Medicare Advantage? Medicare Disadvantage would be a better name,” by Dr. Jessica Schorr Saxe, The Charlotte Observer, Oct. 25, 2022
- “How Private Insurers Exploit Medicare,” by Dr. Cheryl Kunis, The New York Times, Letters, Oct. 23, 2022
- “Be Careful and Do Some Research Before You Sign Up for ‘Medicare Advantage’,” by Patty Harvey and Dr. Corinne Frugoni, Lost Coast Outpost (Humboldt County, Calif.), Oct. 13, 2022
- “Medicare Advantage Is a Massive Scam,” by Ryan Cooper, The American Prospect, April 29, 2022
Podcasts:
- “Former CMS administrator: Hospital-Medicare Advantage tensions ‘a manifestation of an underlying broken system,’” featuring Dr. Don Berwick, Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, Feb. 21, 2024
- “Fighting the Medicare Advantage scourge,” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Nov. 12, 2023
- “Four Ways Medicare Advantage is ripping you off,” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Nov. 6, 2023
- “Is Medicare Advantage too good to be true?” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Dec. 5, 2022
- “Secret rules, denials & fraud: The dark side of Medicare Advantage,” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Nov. 7, 2022
- “More like Medicare Disadvantage, AMIRITE?” featuring Dr. Susan Rogers, Healthcare-NOW Podcast, Oct. 12, 2022
Ready to take action? Write a letter to the editor or op-ed warning about the dangers of Medicare Advantage. You may also wish to call your member of Congress at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to both crack down on Medicare Advantage profiteering and make necessary improvements to the Traditional Medicare program. Questions? Email gaurav@pnhp.org.