In 2020, the Trump Administration launched a new policy “experiment” designed to privatize Traditional Medicare.
Under this model, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has moved millions of Traditional Medicare beneficiaries into mostly commercial, for-profit plans called Direct Contracting Entities, without the enrollees’ full understanding or consent.
In ways similar to commercial Medicare Advantage plans, these entities have a financial incentive to interfere with care decisions and waste taxpayer dollars when compared with the efficiency of Traditional Medicare.
The Biden Administration has renamed this program “REACH” and made it even more generous to industry. But privatization by any name threatens the future of Medicare as we know it.