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Jakes Progress

(11,213 posts)
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 01:25 AM Oct 2023

Biden needs to withdraw nomination.

Selecting Kouzoukas to head Medicare is like putting the CEO of Exxon in charge of the EPA.

I do love the direction Joe has been going, I love that he wants to bring back the New Deal and erase the damage reagan started.

I can only hope he made this nomination at the behest of an advisor - one that he should never listen to again. This nomination is exactly the kind of sleaze that republicans have been doing for years. I can't believe that Joe knows about his nominee's background.

Kouzoukas has shilled for Medicare Advantage to the detriment of Medicare and those fooled into sighing up. (Confession. I followed my pension plan's advice and enrolled in an Advantage plan. Been working for a few years to get out.) Medicare Advantage is a republican and Big Insurance idea. It puts insurance companies in charge of medical decisions and scams Medicare for their profits. republicans see it as a way to bankrupt the program and privatize all medical.

C'mon Joe. Fix this. You were right that Obama Care was a BFD for the people. Putting Kouzoukas in charge of Medicare would be a sweet fucking deal for corporate insurance.

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Biden needs to withdraw nomination. (Original Post) Jakes Progress Oct 2023 OP
I agree completely. LittleGirl Oct 2023 #1
I have bad news for everyone not fooled Oct 2023 #2
MA is a scam justaprogressive Oct 2023 #3
When I retired in 2010 our union pushed us into a Medicare Advantage plan. At that time doc03 Oct 2023 #4
K&R spanone Oct 2023 #5
Demetrios Kouzoukas will preside over a massive transfer of wealth to the rich dalton99a Oct 2023 #6
Biden is screwing up. Medicare Advantage is Medical HMO. Jakes Progress Oct 2023 #7

LittleGirl

(8,999 posts)
1. I agree completely.
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 02:51 AM
Oct 2023

I watched the clip of Senator Warren questioning him and he was not answering her questions because she pointed out the conflict of interest in his nomination. He needs to remove himself and Joe needs to pick another person.

not fooled

(6,761 posts)
2. I have bad news for everyone
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 04:07 AM
Oct 2023

No one is your friend in this. The plan--being enacted stealthily--is to fully privatize Medicare by 2030. This is what not paying attention and being basically an easily distracted and uninformed country produces.

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/cmmi-every-medicare-beneficiary-accountable-care-arrangement-2030/608620/]

https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/big-changes-may-be-coming-traditional-medicare]

Big Changes May Be Coming to Traditional Medicare

Accountable care organizations may replace the fee-for-service model. Here's why that's concerning....


Traditional Medicare (also often called Original Medicare) is the old-fashioned fee-for-service program: You visit a healthcare provider and the provider submits the bill to Medicare. Medicare Advantage, on the other hand, is the commercially offered managed-care alternative, which offers an all-in-one solution in exchange for certain trade-offs. Medicare Advantage plans give you incentive to use healthcare providers in their networks, and they can make decisions that affect how and where you'll receive care.

Those trade-offs are important and they can be difficult to understand. But at least those enrolling in Medicare get to choose between the two options.

The distinctions between the two options will soon begin to blur, however, if a plan to change traditional Medicare goes forward.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, recently announced the next phase of its plan to transform traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Critics argue that the planned changes amount to a dramatic expansion of privatization. Supporters counter that the new approach will improve traditional Medicare by creating financial incentives for providers to coordinate patient care and focus on overall improvements in patient health.

Either way, if you are enrolled in traditional Medicare, or expect that you will be in the future, there's one especially eye-opening aspect of this plan: CMS plans to enroll everyone in this new model by the end of this decade--and as early as next year, in some cases--without prior consent. (bolding mine)

justaprogressive

(7,158 posts)
3. MA is a scam
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 08:20 AM
Oct 2023

scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam
scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam scam

RESIST individually and collectively!

doc03

(39,178 posts)
4. When I retired in 2010 our union pushed us into a Medicare Advantage plan. At that time
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 09:02 AM
Oct 2023

I didn't know one from the other, now I am stuck. I looked at a supplement at the time but the plans are so damn complicated
their plans A B D F G N whatever you need a lawyer to figure them out. Out of the confusion I just went for the Medicare Advantage it was
simple to figure out. I trusted the union to do what was best but now I realise they were bought off by the insurance industry too.
Imagine unions have supported Democrats because we support Medicare and they are helping destroy Medicare.

dalton99a

(95,249 posts)
6. Demetrios Kouzoukas will preside over a massive transfer of wealth to the rich
Mon Oct 2, 2023, 09:31 AM
Oct 2023
https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/at-hearing-senator-warren-slams-medicare-and-social-security-public-trustee-nominee-over-shocking-and-deeply-unethical-financial-conflicts-of-interest

At Hearing, Senator Warren Slams Medicare and Social Security Public Trustee Nominee Over “Shocking and Deeply Unethical” Financial Conflicts of Interest
Demetrios Kouzoukas Currently Serves on Board of For-Profit Private Health Insurer Selling Medicare Advantage Plans, Refuses to Step Away from the Role if Confirmed Warren: “This kind of conflict is shocking—and it is deeply unethical. Not a single other trustee has ever received compensation from an insurance company while acting as a Medicare trustee.”

Washington, D.C. — At a Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing for Demetrios Kouzoukas, nominee for Public Trustee on the Board of Trustees for the Medicare and Social Security Programs, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned Mr. Kouzoukas about financial conflicts of interest arising from his position on the Board of Directors of Clover Health, a private health insurer that derives a significant portion of its revenue from Medicare Advantage. Despite these conflicts of interest, Mr. Kouzoukas refused to commit to stepping away from his role at Clover if confirmed.

Ahead of the hearing, Senator Warren sent a letter to Mr. Kouzoukas raising concerns that these conflicts of interest would create personal and financial pressures to downplay the fiscal threat that Medicare Advantage poses to the financial health of the Medicare Trust Funds, and potentially recommend policy changes that would serve to further entrench the program’s hold over Medicare.

Transcript: Nomination Hearing for Marjorie A. Rollinson, to be Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service, and Demetrios L. Kouzoukas and Patricia Hart Neuman, to be Members of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Supplementary Medical, Hospital Insurance, Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds.
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance
Thursday, September 28, 2023

Senator Elizabeth Warren: Mr. Kouzoukas, you’ve been nominated to serve as the Public Trustee of the Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds. I have concerns about your conflicts of interest. This shouldn’t be a surprise—I sent you a letter outlining those concerns. Mr. Chairman, I’d like to make that letter part of the hearing record.

The position of public trustee was created in the 1980s to give the public a voice in the Board of Trustees’ solvency projections for Medicare and Social Security. A big factor influencing Medicare solvency today is the growth of Medicare Advantage – a program that allows for-profit insurance companies to sell Medicare coverage that experts say is on target this year to overcharge the government by $75 billion. In other words, Medicare Advantage has a lot to do with threatening the solvency of Medicare.

...

Jakes Progress

(11,213 posts)
7. Biden is screwing up. Medicare Advantage is Medical HMO.
Tue Oct 3, 2023, 07:14 PM
Oct 2023

Only on a huge scale. The excess profits going to big insurance is gutting Medicare. Republicans (Libertarians) set this up to make profit for insurance corporations and to rapidly bankrupt medicare so that they can privatize all medical services.

I hope so much that Biden was just inattentive and badly advised. If he continues with this nomination he is helping the right wing billionaire class destroy Medicare. I know he is not good at admitting error, but this is more important than his ego.

Withdraw the nomination and go with someone suggested by people like Elizabeth Warren or have the end of Medicare as a Biden legacy.

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