COMMON DREAMS: Week in Review: Meet the Secretive Rich Funding Efforts to Keep Others Poor

 

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Saturday, April 6, 2024 ■ The Week in Review 'You Are an Inspiration,' Sanders Tells LA Hotel Workers Fighting for Just Contracts "The message of today is we are sick and tired of the greed of corporate America," Sen. Bernie Sanders said at a union rally in downtown Los Angeles. By Jake Johnson • Apr 6, 2024 Youth Organizers Launch 'Protect Our Power' Campaign to Reelect the Squad House progressives "have shifted the political narrative to center young people's leadership on the most pressing issues of our generation—from climate justice, labor rights, and abortion access, to anti-war foreign policy." By Jessica Corbett • Apr 5, 2024 After Months of Progressive Outcry Over Biden Israel Policy, Establishment Dems Pile On Sen. Tim Kaine warned that the status quo in Israel's war on Gaza "is not working." By Julia Conley • Apr 5, 2024 Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes "Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event." By Brett Wilkins • Apr 4, 2024 'Beyond Parody': Biden Pushing for $18 Billion Warplane Sale to Israel "Does anyone wonder why Netanyahu ignores Biden's pleas for restraint in Gaza?" asked one critic. By Brett Wilkins • Apr 3, 2024 MEDICARE (DIS)ADVANTAGE was promoted by REPUBLICANS to DESTROY MEDICARE and reward FOR PROFIT COMPANIES It has become a SCANDAL, denying or delaying care and overcharging. FOR PROFIT HEALTH CARE is a FAILURE! STEWARD is a prime example and numerous articles have been posted explaining the abuse. The solution is MEDICARE FOR ALL! Campaigners Beat 'Greedy' Insurance Giants Exploiting Medicare Advantage "The private insurance industry is used to getting its way, but this year we out-organized them," said one People's Action leader. By Jessica Corbett • Apr 2, 2024 excerpt: As insurance companies' stock fell 6-12% on Tuesday in response to the Biden administration's Medicare Advantage announcement, one healthcare campaigner celebrated that the U.S. government didn't cave to the "greedy" industry's pressure. "The private insurance industry is used to getting its way, but this year we out-organized them," declared Aija Nemer-Aanerud, the People's Action Health Care for All campaign director. Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are an alternative to traditional coverage under the federal health insurance program for people with disabilities and those age 65 or older. They are administered by private insurance companies known for denying patients necessary care and overcharging the government, which costs taxpayers up to $140 billion extra each year. "We urge President Biden to do more to rein in abuse of the Medicare program by private corporations." The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Monday that "payments from the government to MA plans are expected to increase on average by 3.7%, or over $16 billion, from 2024 to 2025. The federal government is projected to pay between $500 and $600 billion in Medicare Advantage payments to private health plans in 2025." First unveiled in January, the 3.7% is higher than what campaigners wanted. Last week, Alex Lawson of Social Security Works and Brittany Shannahan of Public Citizen delivered to the White House around 28,000 petition signatures urging President Joe Biden to "reduce MA rates to a level commensurate with traditional Medicare and recoup all overpayments." However, the rate is also far less than what insurers and industry groups were demanding—and, as Reuters noted Tuesday, the decision was a departure from the norm, as CMS "typically raises the final reimbursement from the advanced notice." "Medicare is one of the most popular government programs because it delivers healthcare to people when and where they need it," said Nemer-Aanerud. "Private insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare spent millions in advertising and lobbying in Washington to demand more of our public money for privatized, so-called 'Medicare Advantage' plans." The People's Action leader pointed out that "we countered their lobbying by helping people share their stories with lawmakers about how Medicare Advantage plans harmed them by denying care when they needed it most." "We commend the Biden administration for listening to our people and refusing to cave to the insurance lobby's demands," the campaigner added. "We urge President Biden to do more to rein in abuse of the Medicare program by private corporations and reinvest public funds into expanding and strengthening traditional Medicare." As private insurers have grown their MA businesses, "concerns about the cost of the program have been rising for years from wonkier corners of Washington," Bloomberg's John Tozzi reported Tuesday. According to his newsletter: "We went years without the advocacy community really paying attention to it," says Wendell Potter, who left a career doing public relations for health insurers to become an outspoken critic of the industry. That shifted over the last year or two, he said, as a loose group of advocates coalesced around the issue... Potter said advocates now get face-to-face meetings with top Biden administration officials about the issue. Potter partnered with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—a leader in the fight for Medicare for All, a single-payer healthcare system that would cover everyone nationwide—for a Newsweek op-ed published just before the CMS announcement. The pair took aim at the insurance industry's "disinformation campaign" about what they call "Medicare (Dis)Advantage." "First off, the industry claims that Medicare Advantage plans reduce costs. But this is simply not true," Potter and Jayapal explained. "And it gets worse. While Big Insurance touts the coverage Medicare Advantage plans provide, the reality is Medicare Advantage plans often provide worse coverage than traditional Medicare." They wrote that "another important characteristic of Medicare Advantage plans is their aggressive use of tools to delay and deny care such as prior authorization, which is seldom used in traditional Medicare, and rarely for services like physician-administered cancer treatments (no one wants chemotherapy if they don't need it)." "Medicare Advantage plans also drive health inequalities, contrary to Big Insurance claims," they continued. "And the industry's biggest and boldest piece of disinformation is that Medicare Advantage plans will be forced to cut benefits if the government stops massive overpayments that have been padding corporate profits for decades." "This is wholly false," they stressed. "And you want to know how we know? Because we have reduced overpayments before." Forbes Billionaires List Shows 'Utterly Unconscionable' Wealth Growth of World's Richest The Forbes Billionaires List "is essentially an annual calculation of how much of the wealth created by the global economy is captured by a tiny caste of oligarchs rather than being used to benefit humanity as a whole." By Julia Conley • Apr 2, 2024 US Economy Performs Far Better Under Democrats Than Republicans: Study Democrats have handled the economy better than Republicans since at least 1949. By Thor Benson • Apr 2, 2024 'Indictments Now,' Says UN Expert After Israel Massacres World Central Kitchen Workers "Israel is crossing every possible red line, still with full impunity," said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. By Jake Johnson • Apr 2, 2024

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■ Opinion Why Are Politicians Still Courting the Nefarious Fossil Fuel Lobby? High-level government participation in an oil and gas industry conference shows official disdain for the public interest; it’s time to make fossil fuels politically toxic. By Basav Sen • Apr 5, 2024 Memo to Shawn Fain: Please Launch 'Workers United Against Mass Layoffs' Imagine what the UAW could help ignite if its well-honed technical and political skills were used to create a new organization that intervened in these layoffs? By Les Leopold • Apr 4, 2024 Andrew Biggs Is An Expert—On Destroying Social Security Biggs has spent decades trying to take away retirement benefits from Americans, by any means necessary. By Alex Lawson • Apr 4, 2024 Meet the Secretive Rich Funding Efforts to Keep Others Poor With both millionaires and homelessness on the rise in the U.S., right-wing donors are bankrolling a nationally coordinated move to end experiments in basic income. By Sam Pizzigati • Apr 3, 2024 The NYT Finds US Complicity in Genocide Unremarkable By refusing to cover a new U.S. shipment of vast quantities of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, the Times gave a boost to the process of normalizing the slaughter in Gaza, as if this was unnewsworthy. By Norman Solomon • Apr 2, 2024

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