Yves are here. We have from time to time released news about how the UK privatized the NHS by reducing service levels and response time, and telling patients to see a private doctor if they want better conditions. As described in this article, Medicare is privatizing the plan through direct contracting, throwing the plan to investors and profiteers.

Please contact your senator and congressman immediately and express your objections on the strictest possible terms. This bait and conversion was done behind Cnogress, and now it’s time for them to wake up and intervene.

By Jack Johnson.Originally published on Common dream

Pilot projects in the Trump era This may result in Full privatization Under the leadership of the Biden administration, the traditional medical insurance plan has made progress within a few years. Although it has a potentially huge impact on patients across the United States, this development has not received the attention of the national media or Congress.

“If left unchecked, the direct contract plan will hand over traditional medical insurance to Wall Street investors.”

On Tuesday, a group of doctors from all over the country will travel to Washington, D.C., to try to attract the attention of lawmakers, the Biden White House and the public, and ask the Department of Health and Human Services to immediately stop the medical insurance experiment. It is called direct contracting (DC).

The doctor plans to submit a copy to HHS petition Signed by more than 1,500 doctors, they believe that the DC pilot threatens “the future of health insurance as we know it.”

Advocate has been made public trigger the alarm I have been following the DC plan for months, warning that it can completely hand over traditional medical insurance to Wall Street investors and others seeking profit, resulting in increased patient costs and reduced quality of care.

Diane Archer, founder of Just Care USA and senior consultant for social security work and medical insurance, said: “Everything we know about direct contracting should be a reason to stop the pilot.” Common dream In an email. “Direct contracting effectively eliminates more cost-effective traditional medical insurance plans and aims to ensure that people with complex health conditions get the care they need.”

“Direct contracting for experiments is likely to be both a medical policy and a political nightmare,” Archer argued. “We have learned from the Medicare Advantage experiment that direct signing will neither save money nor show higher quality.”

But the concerns of healthcare activists have largely been ignored by Congress and the Biden administration, which has allowed Most pilot projects do it according to plan.

In a telephone interview Common dream Prior to the demonstration at HHS headquarters on Tuesday, Dr. Ed Weisbart, chairman of the Missouri Chapter of the National Health Plan Physicians Chapter (PNHP), stated that Congress was largely “asleep” due to Wall Street-backed startups and private insurance giants. Close to traditional medical insurance, this is a 56-year-old plan that covers tens of millions of American seniors.

“People don’t know it’s happening,” Weisbart, one of the doctors who went to the US capital, said of the DC experiment. “Most people in Congress don’t know that this is happening. We’ve already started some conversations like this with congressional staff, and we hope to have more conversations like this when we’re there next week, but it’s not in theirs either. Within the scope of attention.”

“This is the disturbing part,” he added. “Under this new model, how radical the transformation of health insurance will become, and how extensive it will become—this will be the entire business book—however, this has neither the consciousness of Congress nor the approval of Congress. “

The DC program was established by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) during the decline of the Trump administration and included predecessors Pharmaceutical industry executives, Wall Street Banker, with Right-wing policy adviser Notorious for disrupting public health plans.

Under the DC model, the so-called Direct Contracting Entity (DCE) is paid by the Medicare and Medicaid Services Center (CMS) every month to pay for a specific part of the patient’s medical care—this is a major reimbursement of traditional medical insurance directly to the provider. change.

Allow DCE to pocket the funds they did not spend on medical care. Critics argue that this arrangement will incentivize private intermediaries to be stingy with health insurance patients—many of whom may be Automatically join DCE Without their knowledge or permission.

According to a Policy briefing PNHP announced, “Almost any company can apply to become a DCE, including investor-backed startups, including primary care doctors, [Medicare Advantage] Plans and other commercial insurance companies, responsible medical organizations (ACO) or ACO-like organizations, and for-profit hospital systems. “

The organization stated: “Applicants do not need the opinion of Congress or other elected officials to obtain CMS approval.”

Currently, the pilot includes 53 major trading houses In 38 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico.Dr. Richard Gilfilan and Donald Berwick Point out In an article in September Health affairs There are currently 28 DCEs controlled by investors, not healthcare providers. The second batch of DCE is expected to debut in January 2022.

Dr. Ana Malinow, a doctor from San Francisco who is participating in Tuesday’s petition, said in a statement, “Medicare Advantage—the first wave of Medicare privatization—shows us that it inserts a profit-seeking center into public insurance. People don’t save taxpayers’ money, they spend more money and deprive the elderly of their care options.”

“If left unchecked, the direct contract plan will hand over traditional medical insurance to Wall Street investors without the need for the opinions of senior citizens, doctors or even members of Congress,” Malino said. “The Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra has the power to stop this Trump-era plan, and it must do so now.”

The DC experiment was initiated by the Trump administration, but it actually originated from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which set objectives Determine “methods to improve the quality of health care and reduce costs in Medicare, Medicaid, and Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs.”

The ACA granted the CMMI (also known as the Innovation Center) the power to test alternative payment and service delivery models across the country without the approval of Congress — a power that ultimately gave birth to the DC pilot program in the hands of the Trump administration.

CMMI is currently Elizabeth Fowler, He previously served as Vice President of Public Policy and External Affairs at WellPoint, Inc., a health insurance giant that later became Anthem.Fowler also served as the chief health advisor to former Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a right-wing Democrat who is notoriously pro-single-payer Arrested In 2009, and helped ensure that the ACA does not include public options.

Weisbart told Common dream Although the creation of CMMI may be well-intentioned, the agency’s ability to “fundamentally and completely change the public health program that many Americans rely on” without Congress’s approval or supervision is a real danger that legislators must take seriously .

“Some places need congressional supervision,” Weisbart said. “When the public finally found out [lawmakers] Falling asleep on the switch, they won’t be happy. This is your chance to do what democracy should do. “

The Biden administration has suspended the most extreme form of direct contract-known as Geography (GEO) Model-In March, but it allows Global and Professional Direct Contracting (GPDC) The pilot moved forward. according to The CMS and GPDC pilots are expected to be carried out within six years.

Although legislators have largely remained silent on the medical insurance experiment, in recent months, a small number of Democratic congressmen have responded to grassroots demands for the immediate termination of the DC plan.

“We thank you for suspending the implementation of the geographic model,” representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas.) Bill Pascrell (DN.J.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) wrote May letter Becerra and Elizabeth Richter, the then acting CMS administrator. “However, we still worry about the lack of supervision of the 53 DCEs participating in the GPDC model to protect the care of medical insurance beneficiaries.”

“As a member of Congress, we are committed to protecting health insurance beneficiaries,” the lawmaker continued. “We require CMS to immediately freeze harmful CMMI DCE pilot programs, including geographic models and global and professional direct contract models, and evaluate the impact on beneficiaries. “

In September, Porter participated in a webinar hosted by PNHP, which focused on the potential far-reaching harm of the DC pilot.

“This plan should make health insurance more efficient,” Porter said. “But in fact the opposite is true. Instead of allowing patients to go directly to providers under traditional medical insurance, DCE invites insurance companies and investors to intervene and intervene in the care that Americans receive.”

Porter added: “This direct contracting entity model is just another example of the Trump administration’s repeated attempts to undermine an effective, successful, and popular government program to make its corporate donors pockets.” “Direct contracting. The bottom line of the entity is not to improve the quality of care. They raise the cost of patients to maximize their profits.”

in a Pillar Earlier this month, Houston ChronicleChris Tomlinson believes that the Biden administration’s decision to allow the DC plan to continue “reflects the power of for-profit health companies and investors over the two parties.”

Tomlinson added: “Direct signing may also stifle any opportunity for progressive Democrats to make health insurance the choice of any American who wants to join.” “If the government makes private companies responsible for all health insurance patients, it will Eliminate any opportunities to truly reform our healthcare system.”

“Next year,” he added, “millions of Americans will find themselves in privatized health insurance, and most people will never know what happened.”