In 2019 Medicare quietly launched a scheme called Direct Contracting that inserts a for profit company between patients and medical providers.
Companies are paid a monthly fee to cover a patients expenses keeping 40% of the fee not spent on patient care. Beneficiaries can be enrolled without their full knowledge or consent. To opt out patients must change their primary care doctor.
The General Counsel for the Health and Human Services Department warned that it appeared the project was set up to benefit specific companies. Medicare expects to cover all traditional Medicare and Medicare Supplement beneficiaries with this plan by 2030, effectively privatizing Medicare. Medicare recently changed the name of the program to ACO REACH but the same flaws exist as in the Direct Contracting model.
With ACO REACH seniors will have their care radically changed, their choices undermined, services denied and care rationed while increasing the chance of bankrupting Medicare. Healthcare should be between patients and their doctors, not companies that have profit as their motive.
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Mike Gatton
Downtown
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
