Health coverage for Americans of all ages is newly threatened, along with our constitutional governance and democracy. Tax breaks for billionaires are funded by a trillion dollar 10-year cut in Medicaid funding via administrative elimination of eligibility for hard-working, low-income Americans. Around 184,000 New Hampshire citizens receive health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP). Parents struggling to afford groceries will receive a new bill for a monthly premium for CHIP, which covers one-third of New Hampshire’s kids. To pay for the Big Beautiful Bill, the anticipated lapse of the ACA enhanced tax credit will further propel health insurance out of reach for 50,000 Granite Staters.
While this is happening, state Insurance Commissioner D.J. Bettencourt opined that Medicare Advantage provided the “peace of mind seniors depend on every day.” He blames the withdrawal of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans from New Hampshire on Washington policymakers imposing “new regulations, reduced payments and compliance burdens” that force insurers “to rethink their participation.” What was not mentioned is that overpayments to advantage plans cost $83 billion to $140 billion a year more than traditional Medicare for the same care. Overpayments are related to fraudulent billing for inflated degree of illness and billing for non-existent diagnoses, apart from denials of warranted care. These insurance giants are traded on Wall Street and their fiduciary obligation is to their shareholders, not their patients.
It is well-known that MA plans make less profit in smaller, more rural states. MA insurers structure benefits to provide advantages to low-cost and profitable enrollees, but disadvantage those who inevitably will require more expensive care. Perhaps the actions needed to save Medicare tax dollars from being siphoned off into “ill-gained” quarterly profit might also make Americans rethink the privatization of Medicare. The billions in overpayments recouped from MA plans can fund the long-neglected updating of traditional Medicare into the modern era.