Watchdog Says Dr. Oz Push for 'Medicare Advantage for All' Is Disqualifying

"Oz's deep ties to the private healthcare industry make his nomination to lead our nation's current healthcare system totally egregious," said Public Citizen healthcare advocate Eagan Kemp.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/dr-oz-medicare



The watchdog group Public Citizen said Thursday that lawmakers should reject President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Medicare privatization advocate Mehmet Oz to lead a key health agency and instead move toward a publicly run single-payer system that would cover all Americans at a lower cost than the status quo. In a new brief, Public Citizen warned that Medicare privatization efforts—particularly via an expansion of Medicare Advantage plans run by for-profit insurance companies—would likely "move into overdrive" if the Senate confirms Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Ahead of his 2022 Senate bid, Oz backed a plan he described as "Medicare Advantage for All," under which privately run plans would cover non-seniors and "all Americans who are not on Medicaid"—effectively eliminating traditional Medicare. Public Citizen warned such a plan "would mean huge corporate profits while patients continue to struggle to get the healthcare they need," noting that Medicare Advantage plans are notorious for denying necessary care and overbilling the federal government to the tune of tens of billions of dollars per year.



"Further privatizing Medicare would increase healthcare costs systemwide by adding further administrative bloat to our healthcare system," the new brief argues. "Our healthcare system is already made up of thousands of health insurance plans offered by numerous insurers as well as state and federal programs that all play some role in paying for healthcare." "By spending healthcare resources on corporate profit or administrative waste, privatized Medicare would mean Americans pay even more for healthcare than they already do," the brief adds. "We already spend far more than comparably wealthy countries, over $12,500 per capita, compared with peer nations that are spending around half, per capita."

Oz's plan would also benefit companies in which he has invested tens of millions of dollars, according to financial disclosures. "Dr. Oz owned between $280,000 and $600,000 in shares in UnitedHealth Group, a major Medicare Advantage insurer, and between $50,000 and $100,000 in shares of CVS Health," Public Citizen noted Thursday, citing the filings. Eagan Kemp, a healthcare advocate at Public Citizen, said in a statement that Oz's "Medicare Advantage for All" proposal "is dangerous to all patients, especially seniors and people with disabilities, many of whom have not received the care they need under Medicare Advantage."

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https://www.citizen.org/article/not-so-great-oz/

Insurance companies and their political allies are trying to eviscerate and privatize Medicare and seniors and people with disabilities are suffering as a result. If Dr. Mehmet Oz is confirmed as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), these attacks are likely to move into overdrive. Dr. Oz has endorsed expanding privatized Medicare, which would leave more Americans at the whim of greedy health insurance corporations. We should be strengthening Medicare by improving it, not weakening it through further privatization.

Privatized Medicare Companies are Already Harming Seniors and People with Disabilities

We know from studies that privatized Medicare Advantage companies are doing a worse job serving beneficiaries than traditional Medicare. Companies offering privatized Medicare Advantage plans make it difficult for patients to get the care they need and for doctors to provide necessary care. For example, a report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General found that privatized Medicare insurers were denying large numbers of Medicare enrollees medically necessary care. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that patients with significant care needs, including those in the last year of their life, were more likely to drop their privatized Medicare Advantage plan and return to traditional Medicare. This indicates that these patients were unable to receive necessary care and wanted to return to traditional Medicare where their choice of provider and access to services are guaranteed.

Privatized Medicare is a Waste of Taxpayer Dollars

Privatized Medicare companies take the extra money they make from delaying and denying care to beneficiaries and siphon it into excessive executive compensation and share buybacks and dividends. Just last year, these companies cost Medicare an excess of around $82 billion. One study found that, since 2007, overpayments to private Medicare companies have added up to more than $600 billion. If this trend continues, we could be overpaying insurance companies by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. Taxpayer dollars are better spent serving patients, instead of lining the coffers of greedy insurance corporations.

Dr. Oz Has Proposed Putting Nearly Everyone on Privatized Medicare

Expanding privatized Medicare—which Dr. Oz has proposed—would mean huge corporate profits while patients continue to struggle to get the health care they need. The irony of moving toward a system where most or all Americans are served by privatized Medicare is that it would bring many of the dysfunctional aspects of our broken health care system into Medicare. Unlike other comparably wealthy nations, Americans would continue fall through the cracks. Under our current system, many are unable to afford the care they need and face financial hardship if they seek needed care. This contributes to the fact that Americans are sicker than citizens of peer countries. Serving Americans through a different fragmented system, privatized Medicare, would continue this undue spending without improving the nation’s health outcomes. Americans would continue to face high levels of cost sharing, which contribute to many families struggling to get the care they need, with half reporting difficulty affording health care costs and 1 in 4 facing challenges paying for care. In addition, Americans who seek care risk medical debt and even bankruptcy.

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