I appreciated the letter concerning Medicare Advantage from Linda Andrews. It reinforces the cautions I included in my Digger commentary of two years ago, and my more informative article, “Beware of This Insidious Threat to Medicare,” published in OpEdNews.
Most of the articles written to warn the public have one very grave weakness: They address health policy, but not the politics that controls health policy from upstream. They don’t tell you that the greatest harm to the public will be the ability of conservative Republicans to remove Medicare itself as “the third rail of American politics,” an aim they’ve had for 58 years. They will try to do that by emphasizing Medicare solvency and depletion of the Medicare Trust Fund as requiring disestablishment of the program.
It is the $140 billion that Medicare Advantage is costing the government that will hasten the doom of Medicare politically.
Physicians for a National Health Program has produced the most reliable and readable report on Medicare Advantage, and many more expert analyses are readily accessible, including this comprehensive one that’s just been published. Now that Medicare Open Enrollment is here, warnings like these are much needed.
John Steen
South Burlington
