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Chuck DarwinAfter Thursday’s 53-45 Senate vote to confirm <a href="https://c.im/tags/Mehmet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Mehmet</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Oz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Oz</a>, as head of the "Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services" a wide range of critics have argued that the celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon “is profoundly unqualified to lead any part of our healthcare system, let alone an agency as important as CMS,” in the words of the Co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, Robert Weissman Weissman declared that “Republicans in the Senate continued to just be a rubber stamp for a dangerous agenda that threatens to turn back the clock on healthcare in America.” <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/dr-oz-confirmation" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.commondreams.org/news/dr-oz-confirmation</a>

Chuck DarwinDonald Trump promises he will “not cut one penny” of Medicare, but like most elected Republicans he’s a strong proponent of <a href="https://c.im/tags/Medicare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Medicare</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/privatization" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#privatization</a>. During his first administration, Trump issued an executive order that said <a href="https://c.im/tags/Medicare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Medicare</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Advantage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Advantage</a>, the privatized version of Medicare, “delivers efficient and value-based care through choice and private competition.” <a href="https://c.im/tags/Mehmet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Mehmet</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Oz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Oz</a>, the TV doctor Trump nominated to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, disparages traditional Medicare and has called for massive expansion of Medicare Advantage. By remarkable coincidence, as of 2022 ➡️Oz owned a reported stake of $550,000 in UnitedHealth,⬅️ Medicare Advantage’s largest participant. There are many things the private sector does better than the federal government, -- among them enriching shareholders like Oz. But the private sector does not provide health care more efficiently than the public sector. That’s been demonstrated over and over, yet nobody wants to believe it. A reportpublished Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal summarizing a year’s worth of its investigations indicates that where Medicare Advantage really excels is in the filing of <a href="https://c.im/tags/fraudulent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#fraudulent</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/claims" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#claims</a>.Congress created Medicare Advantage in 1997 to demonstrate for good and all, damn it, that the market economy could be more cost-effective at delivering doctor and hospital care. The privatization program succeeded in winning over the public: 54 percent of the Medicare-eligible population chooses Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage looks to people over 65 like a better deal because it covers things traditional Medicare doesn’t, such as visits to the dentist or the eye doctor. Some plans even cover acupuncture. ⚠️But if you get seriously ill and need to be referred to a specialist, Medicare Advantage isn’t so great. An April 2022 study by the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general found that 💥13 percent of the referrals denied under Medicare Advantage would have been approved under traditional Medicare.Medicare Advantage also shows that health care privatization is a lousy deal for taxpayers. 💥Medicare Advantage costs the federal government 7 percent more per enrollee than traditional Medicare, according to an August 2024 study by the fiscally conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation. For enrollees with similar health profiles, Medicare Advantage costs 22 percent more, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.Perhaps that’s because, as the Journal’s investigations found, Medicare Advantage insurers routinely pad their government reimbursement requests with <a href="https://c.im/tags/spurious" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#spurious</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/diagnoses" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#diagnoses</a>. For example, an astounding 66,000 Medicare Advantage patients were diagnosed with diabetic cataracts even after these patients had surgery to correct them, making that diagnosis, in the Journal’s words, “anatomically impossible.” In other instances, patients whom Medicare Advantage insurers reported as HIV positive received none of the recommended treatments. If a doctor failed to furnish a desired diagnosis, insurers dispatched a nurse to the patient’s home to find one. Medicare Advantage insurers also conned veterans into enrolling in the program even though they were already covered adequately by the Veterans Administration health system, which has repeatedly been demonstrated to be superior to private hospital care (something else the public is reluctant to believe).UnitedHealth, the parent company of United Healthcare, whose chief executive, Brian Thompson, was assassinated last month, is, according to the Journal, a particular offender, furnishing doctors with checklists of possible diagnoses. Looking at Medicare data between 2019 and 2022, the Journal found that patients who moved from traditional Medicare to UnitedHealth’s Medicare Advantage plans “got 55 percent sicker, on paper” during their first year in Medicare Advantage. (UnitedHealth replied in a written statement that it provided “more accurate diagnoses” and alleged, without providing evidence, that the Journal’s reporting method was flawed)<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/189804/privatizing-medicare-advantage-scam-claims-fraudulent?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_source=Twitter" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://newrepublic.com/article/189804/privatizing-medicare-advantage-scam-claims-fraudulent?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_source=Twitter</a>

Chuck DarwinDonald Trump’s pick for the number two position in the Department of Defense, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Steve" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Steve</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Feinberg" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Feinberg</a>, is a billionaire with business ties to the defense industry. Feinberg is co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in hypersonic missiles and once owned private military contractor DynCorp. In Trump’s first term, Feinberg was the head of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which gives advice to the president on intelligence estimates and assessments, as well as counterintelligence. The deputy secretary of defense post comes with much more responsibility, with day-to-day management of the massive department’s 3 million civilian employees and service members among its duties. Like Trump’s choice for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, Feinberg does not have experience running a large organization or working in the Pentagon. Plus, Feinberg’s investments and business activities would create multiple conflicts of interest if his appointment to the DoD survives the Senate. Unlike Hegseth, Feinberg doesn’t have a long list of sexual misconduct, as well as scandals running veterans organizations (that we know of). His appointment could convince senators that there’s someone competent actually running things as the deputy to a Christian nationalist who envisions the military taking sides in a civil war scenario. Feinberg is not the only Trump appointee with conflicts of interest: the president-elect’s pick to run Medicare and Medicaid, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Mehmet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Mehmet</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Oz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Oz</a>, has multiple ties to the pharmaceutical industry. But Feinberg’s defense industry ties could affect his view of the role of the U.S. military, as the Trump administration is already stocked with pro-war and pro-intervention advisers. A man who stands to profit when the U.S. military is deployed doesn’t bode well for peace. <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/188973/surprise-trumps-latest-appointment-conflicts-interest" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://newrepublic.com/post/188973/surprise-trumps-latest-appointment-conflicts-interest</a>

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