The Disadvantage of Privatizing Medicare

by   |  March 18, 2008

In 2003, right-wing members of Congress and the White House implemented a stealth plan to ultimately privatize Medicare. Medicare Advantage, as the program is known, moves seniors and the disabled out of traditional, government administered, Medicare and into private health insurance plans. The problem is these private plans are more costly than the traditional Medicare program, they provide less care, and they threaten the long term financial solvency of the Medicare program. As noted in a recent Des Moines Register editorial, insurance companies are getting their pockets lined, while enrollees in this program wind up paying more for less care.

Congressional investigators have concluded these private plans cost taxpayers more per beneficiary than traditional Medicare, pad the profits of insurance companies and can end up costing those enrolled in the plans more money for some services than if they'd remained in traditional Medicare.

The privatization of Medicare will ultimately lead to substantial increases in health costs to Medicare beneficiaries, substantial cuts in benefits, or a combination of the two. Just as AFSCME and its allies stopped the privatization of Social Security, we must now act to protect Medicare.