The President’s Executive Order signed last Thursday 10/3 is just another attempt to dismantle Original Medicare. The press conference contained lies and mis-construed information, for example, saying that this EO is to “… ensure that, as much as we can, our Fee-for-Service Medicare program is not advantaged or promoted over Medicare Advantage with respect to its administration.” This Administration has been doing just the opposite. They repeatedly and blatantly promote private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans over original fee-for-service Medicare, using numerous tactics to steer seniors to enroll in MA plans.
As Judith Stein, Executive Director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, notes, “This Executive Order is designed to bolster the insurance industry by steering beneficiaries into private Medicare Advantage plans, at the expense of most beneficiaries and Medicare’s future. If the Administration truly cares about improving access to Medicare and health care, it will work to improve quality coverage for all Medicare beneficiaries, including those in traditional Medicare.”
For more specifics on the tactics being used to steer beneficiaries into private MA plans, see the Center for Medicare Advocacy’s recent article: The President’s Medicare Executive Order Expands Private Medicare Advantage Over Traditional Medicare.
