Why Medicare Advantage Stinks

The most popular Medicare option these days is the privatized version. It's a scam.

Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership proposes that Medicare Advantage, the privatized version of Medicare, be made the default enrollment option for Medicare (see page 465). The good news is that the author of this chapter, Roger Severino, was rejected for a job in the Trump Health and Human Services Department. The bad news is that the basis for Severino’s rejection was not his proposal to nudge Medicare-eligible people into opting for Medicare Advantage, but rather his politically inconvenient proposals to restrict abortion at the federal level (pp. 471-475). Medicare Advantage is the most popular choice by the Medicare-eligible population, even though it’s a scam. Anything the government does to try to boost enrollment in Medicare Advantage is a terrible idea.

Medicare Advantage was invented in 1997 to prove that the private sector was more efficient at managing health care than the public sector. It consistently failed that test ever after, costing the federal government more than traditional Medicare while providing inferior coverage to its sickest customers. The only things Medicare Advantage does more efficiently are rip off the taxpayer and deny medical referrals to very sick people. That’s the gist of my latest New Republic piece. You can find it here.