UnitedHealth Group's chief executive bragged about how the Biden
administration's ineffectiveness in cracking down on
over billing in Medicare Advantage has led to record profits.
So the CEO, Andrew Whitty told investors that he appreciates the White House's
decision to slow the implementation of its Medicare Advantage reforms,
which would prevent companies like United Health from potentially over billing and
stealing from United States taxpayers, Common Dreams writes.
UnitedHealth, one of the largest Medicare Advantage providers in the United States,
reported $91.9 billion in revenue for the first three months of 2023,
15% growth year over year, and more than 8 billion in
earnings from operations exceeding analysts expectations.
UnitedHealth, like other Medicare Advantage insurers,
has been accused of wrongfully denying patients necessary care, in some cases
utilizing artificial intelligence to determine whether or when to end coverage.
And unfortunately, more and more seniors are signing up for
Medicare Advantage, with some of them very likely not realizing
that it's a privatized alternative to Medicare.
The company meaning, UnitedHealth, said that it added 655,000 new
Medicare Advantage members in the first quarter of the year.
Now, we'll get back to UnitedHealth in just a moment.
But first, here's a little context about what we
learned recently about these Medicare Advantage programs.
So Medicare advantage is not the same as Medicare.
It's a Medicare approved plan from a private company that
offers an alternative to traditional Medicare.
Much like private prisons, it's privately run, but
publicly funded through the Medicare Trust.
Aside from robbing the Medicare trust through over billing,
other issues with Medicare Advantage includes super narrow networks for
providers that can severely limit access to care for the nation's elders.
Many of the nation's largest health insurance companies have made
billions of dollars, not just in revenue,
in profits by exploiting the government's Medicare Advantage program.
A recent New York Times investigation found that eight out of 10 of
the largest Medicare Advantage providers overcharged the government.
In fact, six of the 10 have been accused of fraud by both whistle blowers and
government officials.
Before the Biden administration could implement any rules to mitigate or
prevent this fraud, private health insurance lobbyists did what they do best,
they went to work, they went to Washington.
UnitedHealth helped lead an aggressive lobbying campaign against new
Biden administration rules aimed at limiting Medicare Advantage
insurers ability to overcharge the federal government by making
patients appear sicker than they actually are.
UnitedHealth's CEO Andrew Witty appeared on Capitol Hill in person to lobby
against the proposed changes, which the lucrative Medicare Advantage
industry falsely characterized as cuts to the program that now provides
insurance to nearly half of the overall Medicare population.
Now, that lobbying effort culminated with big rewards for
the private healthcare industry.
Just last month, the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
otherwise known as CMS, agreed to slow down its regulatory agenda
by imposing policy changes over a period of three years rather than all at once.
By the way, with no justification,
why are you slowing down the implementation of these regulations?
Is it because the lobbyists showed up and demanded you do so?
CMS also agreed to boost Medicare Advantage payments or
payment rates by more than previously expected.
But just how bad has the over billing been?
We can get to some of those numbers.
When it comes to excess billing, CMS, which by the way agreed to
slow down their regulations and their crackdowns on over billing,
recently estimated that overpayments to Medicare Advantage
totaled $11.4 billion in fiscal year 2022,
a significant drain on the Medicare Trust fund.
Other estimates, according to democracy now,
were higher at $25 billion in 2020 alone.
Citing one industry analyst, STAT News noted that United Health
could reap $900 million in additional profit next year alone,
thanks to the administration's decision to delay full implementation of reforms.
Insurance Giants, UnitedHealth, Cigna, CVS/Aetna, Elevance,
Humana, you get the picture, and Molina saw their combined revenues
from taxpayer supported programs grow 500% between 2012 and 2022.
UnitedHealth is one of just seven large for profit insurance
companies that now control 70% of the Medicare Advantage market,
which is dependent on taxpayer money, our taxpayer money.
Taxpayer money that they steal by over billing their patients,
by overcharging and over billing the Medicare Trust.
So it's incredible to me that on one hand you have Republican lawmakers pretending
to be panicked about the solvency of various social safety net programs,
whether it be social security or in this case, the Medicare Trust.
Shouldn't we do something about the private companies that
are defrauding the system?
Shouldn't we crack down on that?
And by the way, the Biden administration aiding and
abetting the robbery in the first place is pretty disgusting.
What is he going to do?
Is he going to blame Trump for that too?
This is happening under his watch.
The Biden administration is fully aware of what these private insurers are doing in
stealing money through over billing, and they're letting it happen.
They're slowing down the implementation of these rules that are meant to crack
down on this terrible behavior in the first place.
Just something to keep in mind when the Democratic Party pretends to be better
than Republicans.
Because fact of the matter is, the whole corrupt political system that
we're currently living under does not discriminate against Democrats.
The money flows into the coffers of Democratic lawmakers and
Democratic politicians as well.
So just like Republicans, they do the bidding of corporate America.
And in this particular case, they do the bidding of private insurance companies
that are literally stealing money from the Medicare Trust, a trust we all pay into.