Save Medicare For All Americans
15,329 signatures toward our 30,000 Goal
Sponsor: The Alzheimer's Site
The direct contracting model is dismantling Medicare and charging patients millions. Help us restore Medicare!
Under the traditional Medicare program, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services directly reimburses providers for patients' medical care.
The pilot "direct contracting model" rolled out in 2021, private companies known as "direct contracting entities" (DCEs) act as middlemen between the Medicare program and health care providers1.
The stated intent is to reduce cost by spreading financial responsibility between the government and third parties. However the DCE model also makes it easier for private groups to siphon millions from elderly Americans in need of health care2.
Doctors and private health insurers can switch patients from Medicare to these privately run insurance without permission. Direct contracting motivates corporations to undermine and overcharge patients by targeting those who think they are choosing to stay in traditional Medicare3.
The Biden administration intends to run the program through the end of Biden's term. This paves the way for a future president to expand its scope and further erode Medicare4.
The direct contracting model has no limit on administrative spending, and paves the way for not only the largest national insurers to become DCE, but virtually any company, even a venture capital firm, without congressional approval5.
Companies like Aetna, Alignment Health, Humana, and Clover Health, backed by Google parent company Alphabet are all vying for DCE status6.
According to CMS reports, all enrollees of traditional Medicare will be moved into "a care relationship with accountability for quality and total cost of care by 20301."
For the sake of the health and wellbeing of all Americans, we cannot let this happen.
Help us ensure that beneficiaries of Medicare, the foremost pillar of healthcare in the United States, will be protected from the greed of private, for-profit entities. Sign the petition and tell the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to leave the DCE model behind and return to an honest system that puts people over profits!
- Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (April 2021), "Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) Model."
- ElderLawAnswers (31 March 2022), "Medicare's Controversial Direct Contracting Program Hits Biden Administration's Radar."
- Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Dr. Susan Rogers, The Hill (9 December 2021), "The biggest threat to Medicare you've never even heard of."
- Paul McLeod, Buzzfeed News (28 January 2022), "Trump Created A Program To Privatize Medicare Without Patients' Consent. Biden Is Keeping It Going."
- Manuela Tobias, Politifact (20 September 2017), "Comparing administrative costs for private insurance and Medicare."
- Bailey Bryant, Home Health Care News (23 November 2019), "Alphabet-Backed Insurer Clover Health Committing to Home-Based Strategy."
The Petition:
To the deputy administrator and director of Center for Medicare,
Medicare is becoming privatized as a result of the direct contracting model. Private plans are costing patients far above the funding for a beneficiary under traditional Medicare.
Privatized plans go against the philosophy and practice of Medicare as a government program dedicated solely to the interests of its beneficiaries, and profit-making arrangements with direct contracting entities consume huge Medicare dollars in marketing and administrative costs thus depriving other Medicare beneficiaries of improved benefits.
Medicare is a pillar of healthcare for all Americans, and any attempt to privatize it is an attack on that critical resource.
I urge you to eliminate of the DCE model and revert Medicare back to the direct-government reimbursement model to benefit all Medicare recipients.
Sincerely,
