Donald Dumb is set to appoint another charlatan, one Mehmet Oz who plays doctor on TV, to oversee Medicare and Medicaid. When we say "Oversee" in the Republican jargon, it means they intend to gut the programs by handing them to greedy private companies that run with them without any controls.
Now Mehmet Oz is a Turkish Muslim immigrant whose Turkish Muslim parents would have been denied entry to the US by Donald Dumb himself. But he studied medicine and practiced it briefly before becoming a shallow TV entertainer like the Dumb Moron-elect himself.
The prospective Muslim Turkish head of Medicare was named by his devout Mulsim parents after Mehmet the Conqueror, the Ottoman barbarian brute who conquered Christian Constantinople in 1453 (re-naming it Istanbul), massacred tens of thousands of Christians in Europe, forcibly islamized all lands that had been under Greco-Roman Christian rule for centuries, turned the Balkans into a cesspool of religious intolerance and violence, and in his push to conquer and Islamize all of Europe reached as far as Vienna where he was luckily defeated by a Polish-Serbian alliance.
Who knows what Islamic garbage lurks beneath his quacky TV doctor skull. But one thing he has clearly suggested he'd do is remove all government controls from Medicare and Medicaid and hand the programs to greedy private pharma and medical cartels.
Right now, when a senior enrolls in Medicare, he/she automatically get Medicare A (covers hospital stays) at no cost. In addition, a senior may choose to enroll (for about $175 per month deducted from his/her social security check) in Medicare B. This second part of the program covers doctor's fees, visits, checkups, tests, drugs, etc..
If the senior decides to enroll in Medicare B, he/she has a choice: Either his coverage goes directly through the government - meaning the government is billed directly by the doctors (known as Medicare B Traditional)- or the coverage can go through a private medical insurance company that replaces the government (known as Medicare B Advantage). In this second option the doctors, pharmacies etc. bill the insurance company instead of billing the government. The cost remains the same to the senior. But private insurance companies that handle Medicare Advantage can be good or bad. Many doctors, labs, hospitals, refuse to serve Medicare Advantage covered seniors because of bad payment practices and other abuses.
In other words, in the current system the retiree on Medicare has a CHOICE. If he/she prefers to deal only with the government, he/she can do that. And if he/she prefers to go through a private medical insurer, he/she can do that too.
What the Turkish Muslim Mehmet Oz wants to do is eliminate that choice and force all seniors to go through a private medical insurer, free of all government controls. Currently the government's Medicare sets the coverage that the private insurers must provide in order to join the Medicare Advantage program. If the government is pushed out of the Medicare program by the Turkish Muslim Oz, it would essentially eliminate the entire Traditional Medicare B program because it would turn into any other healthcare coverage that all other Americans get through private insurers. The guarantees that the government imposes would be lifted. The whole concept of Medicare would be gutted.
Absent the choice that seniors now have, imagine what private insurers will do, as we have learned from bitter experience: when profit becomes the priority and all government controls are lifted, premiums begin to rise, cuts to coverage are implemented, perhaps even preexisting conditions would make a return, especially since Trump keeps trumpeting that he will one day gut the Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) and that he has "concepts" on how to do that.
Turkish Muslim Oz is now facing confirmation in the Senate, and if confirmed he would oversee Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. At least 145 million Americans are enrolled under these three programs, including more than 66 million people receiving coverage through Medicare, the federal health insurance program for those aged 65 and older.
As explained above, Medicare Advantage (which is, again, privatized Medicare B) is run by private insurance companies who must comply with rules set by the government, such as limiting out-of-pocket expenses and covering all services covered by traditional Medicare B.
Donald Trump and the Turkish Muslim immigrant Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Nov. 5, 2022. Notice how they always look mean and stern as a way of projecting "greatness" through violence. "They, alone, can fix all of America's problems".
Given that there is competition between Government's Medicare B (traditional) and Private insurers' Medicare B (Advantage), the system is currently healthy. If I am dissastisfied with my Medicare B Advantage private insurer's practices, I can switch to another, or I can switch to the Medicare B Traditional government insurance, or I can simply disenroll from Medicare B altogether and stay only on medicare A. Lots of choices that Dumb and Oz want to eliminate.
But in June 2020, Turkish Muslim Oz said Medicare Advantage offers better care due to there being competing plans. He said Medicare Advantage could also be expanded to all Americans. Which ironically essentially boils down to expanding Obamacare and is something that the Democrats have always been advocating, except they want the government to remain the regulator. But that is not what the republicans want. They want the insurance companies to be completely free to do business as they please, meaning putting profit and stakeholders above patients and their health.
Experts say it will be difficult for Republicans to force Medicare B Advantage to be the default option (i.e. to eliminate Traditional Medicare B), particularly in an administration in favor of less regulation, because Medicare B Advantage requires a strong partnership with regulators. Right now, private insurance companies must meet a lot of requirements to make sure federal taxpayers dollars are not subjected to abusive practices and that the best interests of the patients remain the priority. Private insurers would limit their coverage of patients to increase their profits, unless they are forced to remain within the constraints imposed by the government. Unlike private insurers, the government only cares for patients' wellbeing and does not look at profit-making.
If Medicare Advantage is privatized, it would increase spending, and the program would not be able to negotiate with as many providers as traditional Medicare can.
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