Under Pressure, the Biden Administration Rebrands Its Medicare Privatization Initiative
After quietly pushing an insurance-industry-backed Medicare privatization scheme, the Biden administration has come under fire from pro-Medicare activists. In response, the administration has rebranded the scheme — but left its privatizing substance intact.
The Biden administration has spent the past year advancing a Trump–era program to insert profit-driven middlemen between retirees and their Medicare. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Though it sounds unbelievable, the Biden administration has spent the past year advancing a Donald Trump–era program that inserts a profit-driven corporate middleman between retirees and their Medicare, something its critics warn is the first step to the total privatization of the program. And it appears the ensuing battle is just starting.
Joe Biden seemed to be dangling a blade over the “direct contracting” program after a groundswell of opposition among both grassroots activists and progressives in Congress forced his hand. Officials began hinting that they would overhaul the program or even cancel it entirely, with those businesses set to profit from it working feverishly to prevent the latter outcome. For the past week, both the health care industry and advocates for public health care have been waiting anxiously to find out what the administration decided.
Yesterday, they got their answer. In response to “feedback from stakeholders and participants,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the direct contracting program would be turned into something called ACO REACH (Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health).
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