Medigap is the supplemental insurance that covers the 20% that Medicare does not cover. Private for-profit insurance is starting to scam seniors similarly to how they scammed Medicare Advantage recipients.
Medigap Scam exposed.
Recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren exposed an insurance industry ploy to scam millions of dollars from seniors. #Medigap is federally regulated supplemental health insurance offered by for-profit companies such as UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and Aetna.
The Medigap marketplace is polluted with incentive trips and other perks for brokers and agents who, in pursuit of such bribes, could be motivated to forcefully encourage seniors into the most expensive Medigap plans, regardless of whether those plans meet their needs.”
Warren found that the estimated 32 private companies that entice agents with vacations and other incentives to boost Medigap sales provided supplemental insurance to around 6.6 million people in the U.S. in 2021 and raked in nearly $16 billion in premiums from beneficiaries that year.
The fiduciary responsibility of any private corporation is to maximize its profits, shareholder value, and their bonuses. There is only one way to do that; they must extract as much as they can from their customers. That is OK for products and services that are not essential. If the corporations charge too much, then customers will not purchase until they drop their prices. That is not possible in healthcare, energy, and other basic needs.
Many real Progressives often speak about removing services and products essential for our well-being from the for-profit domain of the private sector. The pushback from Republicans and neoliberals is always fierce. It is time to remove healthcare, energy, and other services critical to our existence from the for-profit sector.
