It was under Bush II that the privatization of Medicare began with the introduction of Medicare Advantage (MA). It has already siphoned off hundreds of billions of dollars from the Medicare Trust Fund, as the Republicans had originally intended. This stealth privatization has continued unabated since then, but it is only now that Trump 47 and his co-president Musk are calling for the total privatization at a more rapid pace, that everyone finally has their knickers in a wad. Bleed slowly and nobody notices, but the hemorraging cannot be ignored. "Save Medicare" is the battle cry, when it really should be "Save What Is Left Of Medicare" because about half has already gone into private hands via Medicare Advantage, a program whose blatant thievery would have embarrassed Carlo Ponzi. Obama and Biden did not save Medicare during their 12 years in office and I highly doubt that Trump 47 will reverse the downward spiral of Medicare Advantage and its proponents into the total pillaging of Medicare by private insurers like Humana, United Health Care, AARP and Bubba the Ragman's Plumbing, Taxidermy, and Health Care, Inc. "Y'all are welcome" sayeth Medicare Advantage.

I have been writing about Medicare and the Medicare Advantage ripoff for the last three years when it was brought to my attention that Traditional Medicare patients at PeaceHealth had been moved, without their permission, to what was then known as a Direct Contracting Entity (DCE), AKA Medicare Advantage on steroids. My article on this grand theft is available here: “The Blob” or Peace Health’s Latest Expansion Gambit. The program, under Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), was getting so much bad press and push-back that the DCE title was abandoned and renamed ACO Reach.  But as I said back then, "If you put lipstick on a pig or polish a turd, you still have a pig and a turd." For background, the CMMI is the brainchild of Barack Obama under his Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was no doubt an "act" but neither affordable nor caring as you can see what it led to: the pillaging of Medicare, and the abandonment of millions of people who never qualified for the ACA.

The current cries to save Medicare are understandable, but the public must know exactly the nature of the program they wish to save. Medicare is riddled with corrupt practices from the wolf-like Advantage insurers who make their money by denial of care and overcharging the government (upcoding), to slow-walking re-imbursements and payments to doctors and hospitals. Even if saved in its current form, the Medicare program will be ground down to a universalized MA that sucks the dollars and the life-blood from the Medicare Trust Fund. 

The solution is quite simply Medicare for All and, even with the circus taking place at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, we all must begin educating the public about this viable replacement.    

"Single-payer national health insurance, also known as “Medicare for all,” is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents of the U.S. would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs...The program would be funded by combining our current, considerable sources of public funding (such as Medicare and Medicaid) with modest new taxes based on ability to pay."

Below, under RELATED LINKS, you will find information and further links in my articles on the problems now encountered by Medicare as the private sector seeks to steal money from the elderly, under Medicare, and from our most vulnerable citizens, children, and handicapped under Medicaid. For these thieves, my mind turns to the writings of the Italian poet Dante as he described his descent into hell (the Maleboge) with the Roman poet Virgil as a guide. The Seventh Bolgia (ditch) of hell, reserved for thieves, is described as such: 

This bolgia houses the souls of fraudulent thieves.... the thieves are trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of being bitten and bound by serpents, dragons and other vengeful reptiles. Thieves are bitten by snakes, turning their bodies into ash before spontaneously regenerating their bodies again for further torment. Others are bitten by snakes and are transformed into snakes that, in turn, minister the punishment onto other souls. Here, the souls turn against each other, reflecting how theft breaks the intrinsic bonds of trust and community that holds society together.