Showing posts with label Breaking Points. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breaking Points. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

MulgrewCare Update: Biden Hikes Medicare Prices and Funnels Profits to Private Insurers - Connecting the dots to UFT policy

If they were actually interested in winning they wouldn't be doing things that materially make the lives of millions of seniors worse..... for the past 50 years we've seen this creeping privatization of Medicare (supported by both Dems and Rep).
.....The Lever reporter Matthew Cunningham Cook on Breaking Points. https://www.levernews.com/
Let's be clear - the UFT/AFT is tied at the hip to the center-right anti-progressive wing of the Dem Party --- they are fundamental neo-liberals who believe in the market. Cook says -- maybe private insurers can do a better job of keeping costs down. Maybe they think grandma was going to the doctor too often and private insurers help solve that problem.

Of course. Impose an extra barrier between patient and doctor. 
Note: You will not be reading this story in the mainstream media which is why you should support independent media like The Lever. https://www.levernews.com/

Krystal Ball asks The Lever reporter Matthew Cunningham Cook why the move to MedAdv from Medicare. He responds that the idea of Medicare was to get private insurance out of the way between patient and doctor and MedAdv goal is to bring private insurers back as an intermediary. 
In the midst of all this you see an 8.5% increase in payments to privatized insurance. Doctors can barely make ends meet due to Medicare payments.
If you think that wasn't the real cost saving reasons for MulgrewCare, you need to buy another bridge. 

He also gets into the FDA approval of the Alzeimer's drug over the recommendations of a panel -- you think some level of corruption? That was the ostensible reason for the $20 a month increase. But when the approval was withdrawn, the 20 bucks remained. A 14.5% increase -- another Putin inflation?
 
Krystal asks WHY raise the premium for seniors with midterms approaching.
Cook: I often say the Democrats have a kink for losing.
He goes further by ointing to the very people in the Dem Party who make these decisions always flip back and forth between public and private. They are there to help the private industry make money so they will be hired when the Dems lose.
 
Progressives are a bigger threat than the Republican right.
WTF: With mid-term elections coming, Biden raises Medicare premiums by $20 a month - which will cost me and my wife an extra $500 a year.  And also hands private insurance companies an 8% raise. Tell me Democrats don't want to lose. Actually, since they are incompetent at governing, maybe that's the goal. Lose the midterms so badly, Biden can then claim nothing gets done due to Republican opposition. That way they can remain a permanent minority party, but still keep control of the infrastructure. That's their definition of winning -- what they get personally.

It explains how much a threat to them the Bernie wing of the party is -- that threatens their lucrative deals if they lose control of the party.

Top Biden Admin officials are more interested in their next job
Cook says they are thinking of how they can get a bigger pool at their house.

The Breaking Points story and video affirms my understanding of the reason Mulgrew and the UFT/Unity machine support privatized Medicare Advantage over the public traditional Medicare. It explains the seeming illogic behind funneling money to private insurance companies.

But it doesn't explain: What Mulgrew and the UFT are getting out of supporting private insurgence. 

Maybe it's time to start asking those questions.

Biden HIKES Medicare Prices, Insurers Reap Profits | Breaking Points

 

   

Krystal talks with The Lever journalist Matthew Cunningham Cook about the Biden administration's Medicare price hike that will boost the profits of private insurers To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/ To listen to Breaking Points as a podcast, check them out on Apple and Spotify Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Kbsy61...