I don't hold any hope. Mehmet Oz has been tapped to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) who is a big proponent of Medicare Advantage.
The bipartisan investigation of hospital systems purchased by Apollo Global Management and Leonard Green & Partners reinforced the findings of past academic research.
“As our investigation revealed, these financial entities are putting their own profits over patients, leading to health and safety violations, chronic understaffing, and hospital closures,” Whitehouse said in a statement. “Private equity investors have pocketed millions while driving hospitals into the ground and then selling them off, leaving towns and communities to pick up the pieces.”
Dr. Oz wants to expand private Medicare plans. Here's how he could do it.
The budget stakes
There are growing concerns in Washington about Medicare Advantage’s cost, thanks to studies that have found the government now spends more per enrollee than it does for similar customers in traditional Medicare, partly due to how insurers game the payment system. The
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated in 2023 that the government could end up overpaying insurers in the program by $810 billion to $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years, which will put more drain on Medicare’s trust fund and likely lead to higher premiums on the traditional side of the program.
