Medicare Advantage Is a $140 Billion Scam
According to a bombshell new report, the federal government is losing as much as $140 billion per year by subsidizing Medicare Advantage, the privatized insurance scheme managing health care for seniors.
90 Articles by: Matthew Cunningham-Cook
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Matthew Cunningham-Cook has written for Labor Notes, the Public Employee Press, Al Jazeera America, and the Nation.
Big Three Autoworkers Are Striking Against Concessions While Shareholders Reap a Bonanza
This morning, the United Auto Workers launched a landmark strike against the Big Three automakers for their refusal to provide adequate pay and job security. Meanwhile, over the last year, the automakers have authorized $5 billion in stock buybacks.
Big Pharma Is Massively Overcharging Americans
Drugmakers are up in arms over a new program allowing Medicare to negotiate prices on some drugs. The real scandal, of course, is the absurd prices the companies set for these drugs’ sale in the United States, when they are sold for so much less elsewhere.
Big Pharma Is Threatening to Withhold Medicine in Protest of Regulation
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act introduced modest drug pricing restrictions. In response, big pharma companies — which have seen record profits — are threatening to slow the rollout of a lifesaving drug.
Joe Biden’s DOJ Is Claiming “There Is No Constitutional Right to a Stable Climate”
In the same week large swaths of the US were under extreme heat warnings, Joe Biden’s Justice Department filed its most recent motion to dismiss a landmark climate case by arguing that nothing in the Constitution guarantees the right to a secure climate.
Donald Trump Is Not Pro-Worker, He’s Pro-Donor
The Trump-linked private equity firm Apollo is now benefitting from a bailout Donald Trump orchestrated in 2020 for the trucking company Yellow. As the company files for bankruptcy, truckers are getting crushed and Apollo is enjoying a publicly funded cushion.
The Company Whose Chemicals Poisoned East Palestine Still Opposes Rail Safety Legislation
In February, a train derailment exposed the town of East Palestine, Ohio, to toxic vinyl chloride. Since then, the company that made the chemicals has spent millions to stop railway legislation that could help prevent another disaster.
Private Equity–Backed Insurers Are Failing Policyholders
Over a million people have lost their health insurance thanks to the failures of Friday Health Plans and Bright Health, two private equity–backed insurers — illustrating the risks of private equity moving into the already-unstable health insurance market.
The GOP Is Quietly Adding Climate Denial to Government Spending Bills
Beholden to fossil fuel industry donors, congressional Republicans are quietly inserting provisions into government spending bills that undermine the US government’s ability to respond to the worsening climate crisis.
This Little-Known Corporation Is Making a Fortune Kicking People Off Medicaid
As more than 17 million people stand to lose health insurance in the unfolding Medicaid eligibility review disaster, a little-known company called Maximus is set to make massive profits off of helping the government deny people health insurance.
Medicare Advantage Insurers Are Making Bank by Denying Care to Seniors
Care denials by Medicare Advantage insurers are threatening the foundational premise of the government’s health care safety net: that people on Medicare should get the treatments that are recommended by a doctor.
In Delaware, Corporations Are Dangerously Close to Acquiring the Right to Vote
In an effort to expand the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which gave corporations personhood and free speech rights, Delaware’s Democratic-controlled legislature is considering a Republican bill that would give corporations the right to vote.
For Fossil Fuel Company Suncor, Stock Buybacks Come Before Environmental Cleanup
While Suncor has failed to make basic improvements to a Commerce City, Colorado, refinery that is polluting the area, the company has massively increased payouts to shareholders — at the urging of one of the world’s largest hedge funds.
The For-Profit Takeover of Medicare Is a Huge Scam
Last year, the federal government spent $20.5 billion overpaying private insurers for Medicare Advantage plans — and the industry’s aggressive lobbying campaign is kneecapping efforts by lawmakers to stop the scheme.
The Florida GOP Wants to Give More State Pension Money to Ron DeSantis’s Prospective Donors
Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature just sent Gov. Ron DeSantis a bill that would put more state pension money in the hands of his prospective Wall Street donors. The bill could put DeSantis on the wrong side of a long-standing anti-corruption rule.
Ron DeSantis Is Giving Away Florida Pension Money to Wall Street Donors
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been putting huge sums of state retirement money into underperforming private equity firms that have donated to his campaign efforts.
Mayoral Candidate Helen Gym Wants to Build a Progressive Philadelphia
A former teacher and parent organizer, progressive mayoral candidate Helen Gym is hell-bent on making Philadelphia an example for nationwide reforms in health care, public education, and affordable housing.
The Pundits Were Wrong: Corporate Greed Stoked Inflation
For the last year, media pundits have insisted that today’s inflation has nothing to do with corporate profiteering, much to the delight of the capitalist class. It is more than clear now that they were wrong.
Clarence Thomas Helped Kill Eviction Bans That Threatened Harlan Crow’s Business
While billionaire real estate mogul Harlan Crow was lavishing Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas with luxury gifts, Thomas voted to strike down federal tenant protections that might hurt the profits of Crow’s company.
The University of California Is Bailing Out Private Equity Giant Blackstone
Amid a housing crisis that is leaving thousands of its students and employees homeless, the University of California is bailing out private equity behemoth Blackstone, siphoning billions of dollars to privatized student housing and corporate landlords.