- This event has passed.
The Future of Healthcare and Medicare Privatization
June 27, 2022 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Join Indivisible Bainbridge Island, North Kitsap Indivisible and Rebecca Parson (progressive candidate running against Rep. Kilmer for CD 6 in the August primary) for a discussion of the ongoing effort to privatize Medicare.
Here is the link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZMvf…
We have contacted Rep Kilmer and staff to be part of this conversation but Rep. Kilmer’s staff have been inaccessible for months. We may convert this into an Empty Seat Townhall if we continue to be frustrated in this attempt at clarity between these two candidates.
Congressional Representatives and Senators are not advancing single payer healthcare and they are threatening Medicare as we know it by attempting to privatize it. Millions of people have already had their Medicare accounts privatized without their consent. We need to know the facts from Candidate Parson and Representative Kilmer.
We’ll hear from Rebecca Parson about the history and future of:
- Congressional actions on the freedom to choose and women’s rights over their own bodies
- the privatization of Medicare that is underway
- Healthcare/Medicare for all
We will continue to ask Representative Kilmer to join us and clarify his stance on these issues, either in a townhall with Rebecca Parson or his own BINKI forum if he does not want to have a conversation with candidate Parson.
Here are some details on privatization of healthcare and why we are concerned:
- The Trump administration created a pilot program to privatize traditional Medicare – the Direct Contracting program.
- The Biden administration has rebranded this privatization scheme as ACO REACH.
- Under ACO REACH, CMS contracts with private entities to manage Medicare services. They can be hospitals and clinics, but also for-profit investors like private equity firms, insurance companies, or corporate health care businesses.
- ACO REACH entities are paid an individualized fee to manage health care services for each Medicare beneficiary based on the health condition of the beneficiary.
- By 2028 annual Medicare spending is estimated to be $1.6 trillion. For-profit entities are interested in managing Medicare services to get their hands on this money.
Why is this bad?
- ACO REACH would allow outside entities to insert themselves between Medicare beneficiaries and our health care providers.
- ACO REACH would allow for-profit entities to draw down the Medicare Trust Fund for their private profits.
- ACO REACH would open the door to all sorts of profit-taking practices, including weakening the delivery of Medicare services.”
Further reading:
- “Trump Created A Program To Privatize Medicare Without Patients’ Consent. Biden Is Keeping It Going,” by Paul McCleod at BuzzFeedNews.com
Under the program, insurers and doctors can negotiate to move patients to a private insurance stream. Patients don’t get a say. - “Jayapal Leads More Than 155 Lawmakers in Urging Biden to Expand Medicare in the American Families Plan” 70 percent of the House Democratic Caucus calls on White House to expand Medicare by lowering the eligibility age, improving benefits, and dropping the price of prescription drugs