Further adventures in privatizing Medicare through Medicare Advantage plans.

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Private companies are using the government’s Medicare Advantage program as an alternative to their existing retiree health plans.

Employers and insurance companies cut deals behind closed doors for a private Medicare Advantage plans available only to the retirees of that employer.

Then the federal government pays the insurer a set amount for each person in the plan.

The employer saves (makes) money because the federal payment reduces the employer’s share of the cost of coverage.

I see this as part of the big plan to privatize Medicare.

Begun under Trump, and continuing under the Biden administration, the idea is for every retiree to be in a private MA-type plan by 2030 with or without our consent.

These employer-bargained retirement MA plans receive billions of dollars in federal payments.

As I say, these group retiree plans should not be confused with the public Medicare Advantage plans that insurance companies advertise on TV and in the mail.

Although run by private insurance companies, they must offer the benefits of the government’s traditional Medicare and often add extras like dental and vision coverage.

However, they can be very restrictive in terms of which medical providers are available to us.

In traditional Medicare, the government pays doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers directly for beneficiaries’ care.

This is known as pay-for-service.

But Medicare Advantage is different. The government pays the insurance companies that sell Medicare Advantage policies a fixed amount every month for each member they sign up.

To make greater profits, needed services are denied.

MA is the source of huge profits for the insurance companies.

It is a bad deal for the rest of us.

The number of beneficiaries in employer-sponsored Medicare Advantage plans has soared from about 1.6 million in 2008 to more than 5 million last year.

In New York City some teacher and other public employee retirees sued to stop the plan to move them into Medicare Advantage.

New York Judge Lyle Frank in Manhattan State Supreme Court ruled that the city must now let current and future retirees opt out of the shift and maintain their current health care free of charge.

It was a partial victory.

But Medicare privatization marches on.