Over the next few weeks, as millions of Americans go through the "open enrollment" period for health care, Big Insurance is preparing a tens-of-millions-of-dollars marketing campaign to mislead, misinform, and misdirect patients in the grossly misnamed private insurance plans called Medicare Advantage, all in an effort to avoid the blame for the upcoming price increases and cuts to care caused by their corporate greed.
We'll see Big Insurance and their allies in Congress blame the Biden administration, hospitals, technology, middlemen—literally anyone and anything—to avoid having to be straight with the American people about the upcoming price increases.
Here is the truth: At a time when these companies are looking to increase premiums and decrease care, they are swimming in record profits, and their corporate executives and shareholders are reaping massive paydays.
Put simply, they are more concerned about their profit margins than they are about patients.
But of course, Big Insurance won't say that. And they are going to spend millions of dollars on marketing and advertising to convince the public that it is the Biden administration that is to blame for their upcoming premium hikes. This is a lie.
The reforms the Biden administration has put in place stopped the inappropriate denials of care and decreased the $140 billion per year that Big Insurance gets in overpayments from the federal government from Medicare Advantage. Yes, you read that right, Big Insurance is overcharging taxpayers $140 billion every year, and now that the Biden administration smartly chose to do something about it, Big Insurance is using it as a weapon of misinformation against the administration.
The reality is that none of the Biden administration's reforms cut any benefits or care. The reforms helped patients and saved taxpayers money. Saying anything else is simply spin.
Big Insurance will also claim in the weeks ahead that the premium increases in Medicare Advantage are needed to provide better care. Once again, this is not true. Unbiased, scientific studies repeatedly find that Medicare Advantage beneficiaries face more obstacles to care and worse outcomes. For example, mortality has been shown to be significantly higher for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with stomach, pancreas, and liver cancers than comparable beneficiaries in traditional Medicare. Additionally, Medicare Advantage insurance companies denied more than 3 million prior authorization requests for care prescribed by a doctor in 2022.
And while patients get the short end of the stick when it comes to these deceptive practices and marketing, Big Insurance companies that run Medicare Advantage plans are laughing all the way to the bank, raking in nearly $71 billion in profits last year alone—all while giving their CEOs as much as $22.1 million in compensation. But that is not the end of their greed. At the same time, they are jacking up premiums, Big Insurance is spending money meant for care on stock buybacks to enrich their stockholders. In 2022, Cigna bought back $7.2 billion of stock, and UnitedHealthcare bought back $5.7 billion. Staggering numbers for companies looking to raise costs and cut care. No wonder they hide the truth.
All this misinformation from Big Insurance is meant to hide one fundamental truth that they don't want the public—and policymakers—to hear. And that is that Medicare Advantage is neither Medicare nor an advantage. It is a house of cards built by Big Insurance to pad their profits with taxpayers' money. And instead of righting these wrongs, Big Insurance and their Madison Avenue ad makers are instead ramping up their efforts to lie to the American people.
So, this fall, don't be fooled or blinded by corporate greed. Health care should be about patients, not profits. And patients deserve the truth, not more big lies from Big Insurance.
Pocan represents Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District. Potter is a former Vice President of Communications at Cigna and executive director of the Center for Health and Democracy.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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