As the Medicare Advantage program continues to grow (and as Wall Street investors continue to profit), advocates are pushing back against the many ways that corporate health insurers are shortchanging seniors and people with disabilities. News reports, investigations, and opinion pieces have all highlighted troubling behavior on the part of Medicare profiteers.
Interested in telling your Medicare story? See our detailed suggestions on writing and submitting an opinion piece.
More Perfect Union: How Corporations Raided Medicare
New York Times report exposes Medicare Advantage
In October 2022, The New York Times published a stunning rundown of fraud allegations and lawsuits against Medicare Advantage insurers, many of whom have lined up to participate in other privatization schemes like Medicaid Managed Care.
Federal investigations and industry watchdog reports
Medicare Advantage insurers have kept federal investigators and industry watchdogs busy chronicling the many ways they harm patients and taxpayers. A collection of recent reports—which are in no way comprehensive—document everything from deceptive marketing tactics to narrow provider networks to inappropriate denial of care.
- Public Citizen: “Largest Medicare Advantage Firms Spend Big to Influence Policy” (March 2025)
- American Economic Liberties Project: “Medicare Advantage and Vertical Consolidation in Health Care” (April 2024)
- Center for Economic and Policy Research: “Medicare Advantage and Deceptive Marketing” (Nov. 2023)
- Journal of Clinical Oncology: “Medicare Advantage: A Disadvantage for Complex Cancer Surgery Patients” (Feb. 2023)
- U.S. Senate Committee on Finance: “Deceptive Marketing Practices Flourish in Medicare Advantage” (Nov. 2022)
- Kaiser Health News: “Audits — Hidden Until Now — Reveal Millions in Medicare Advantage Overcharges” (Nov. 2022); Update: “Did Your Health Plan Rip Off Medicare?” (Jan. 2023)
- Physicians for a National Health Program: “CMS Should terminate the Medicare Advantage Program” (Aug. 2022)
- U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations: “Protecting America’s Seniors: Oversight of Private Sector Medicare Advantage Plans” (June 2022)
- U.S. Government Accountability Office: “Medicare Advantage: Continued Monitoring and Implementing GAO Recommendations Could Improve Oversight” (June 2022)
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General: “Some Medicare Advantage Organization Denials of Prior Authorization Requests Raise Concerns About Beneficiary Access to Medically Necessary Care” (April 2022)
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General: “Some Medicare Advantage Companies Leveraged Chart Reviews and Health Risk Assessments To Disproportionately Drive Payments” (Sept. 2021)
- Kaiser Family Foundation: “Medicare Advantage: How Robust Are Plans’ Physician Networks?” (Oct. 2017)
Medicare Advantage news stories and opinion pieces
Medicare advocates have been raising the alarm about Medicare Advantage and the threat it poses to seniors and people with disabilities.
News stories:
- “Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures” by Reed Abelson and Teddy Rosenbluth, The New York Times, Aug. 28, 2025
- “The Medicare Advantage Influence Machine,” by Fred Schulte and Holly K. Hacker, KFF Health News, Sept. 30, 2024
- “Insurers Pocketed $50 Billion From Medicare for Diseases No Doctor Treated,” by Christopher Weaver, et al, The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2024
- “Company Behind Joe Namath Medicare Advantage Ads Has Long Rap Sheet of Misconduct,” by Matthew Cunningham-Cook, The American Prospect, Feb. 22, 2024
- “UnitedHealth used secret rules to restrict rehab care for seriously ill Medicare Advantage patients,” by Bob Herman and Casey Ross, STAT News, Dec. 28, 2023
- “7 Questions to Ask to Protect Yourself From Medicare Advantage Scams,” by Diane Archer, Common Dreams, Nov. 21, 2023
- “‘Deny, deny, deny’: By rejecting claims, Medicare Advantage plans threaten rural hospitals and patients, say CEOs,” by Gretchen Morgenson, NBC News, Oct. 31, 2023
- “Hospitals, doctors drop private Medicare plans over payment disputes,” by Ken Alltucker, USA Today, Oct. 27, 2023
- “Insurers Are Gaming Medicare — To The Tune Of $140 Billion,” by Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Lucy Dean Stockton, The Lever, Oct. 4, 2023
- “Medicare Advantage was meant to curb federal healthcare spending. It’s costing more instead,” by Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2023
- “Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is ‘Heist’ by Private Firms to Defraud the Public,” interview with Wendell Potter, Democracy Now, Oct. 12, 2022
- “Don’t Touch My Medicare!” by Trudy Lieberman, Harper’s Magazine, Nov. 2016
Opinion pieces:
- “Plans to test prior authorization in traditional Medicare are deeply troubling,” by Dr. Donald M. Berwick and Andrea Ducas, STAT, May 6, 2025
- “To cut ‘waste and fraud,’ reform Medicare Advantage,” by The Editorial Board, The Washington Post, April 22, 2025
- “Don’t Make This Mistake During Open Enrollment,” by Rep. Mark Pocan and Wendell Potter, Newsweek, Nov. 21, 2024
- “Medicare Advantage can’t deliver the moon,” by Dr. Carol Paris, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Nov. 16, 2024
- “Medicare Advantage is no advantage to patients,” by Dr. Henry Kahn, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 28, 2024
- “Project 2025 Threatens Full Privatization of Medicare—A Death Sentence for Millions,” by Dr. Diljeet Singh, Common Dreams, Oct. 19, 2024
- “Medicare Advantage has many restrictions, and patients struggle when they must switch doctors,” by Dr. Monica Maalouf, Chicago Sun-Times, July 8, 2024
- “Medicare Advantage is giving away billions to corporate insurers. It’s time we put a stop to it,” by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Dr. Diljeet Singh, The Hill, Nov. 17, 2023
- “Millennials can save Medicare,” by Alexa D’Angelo, New York Daily News, Dec. 2, 2022
- “Enrolling in Medicare? What you should know about TV time, fraud and what’s next,” by Dr. Robert Stone, The (Bloomington, Ind.) Herald-Times, Nov. 17, 2022
- “Medicare Advantage? Medicare Disadvantage would be a better name,” by Dr. Jessica Schorr Saxe, The Charlotte Observer, Oct. 25, 2022
- “Medicare Advantage Is a Massive Scam,” by Ryan Cooper, The American Prospect, April 29, 2022
Podcasts:
- “Former CMS administrator: Hospital-Medicare Advantage tensions ‘a manifestation of an underlying broken system,’” featuring Dr. Don Berwick, Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, Feb. 21, 2024
- “Fighting the Medicare Advantage scourge,” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Nov. 12, 2023
- “Four Ways Medicare Advantage is ripping you off,” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Nov. 6, 2023
- “Is Medicare Advantage too good to be true?” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Dec. 5, 2022
- “Secret rules, denials & fraud: The dark side of Medicare Advantage,” featuring Dr. Ed Weisbart, Code Wack Podcast, Nov. 7, 2022
- “More like Medicare Disadvantage, AMIRITE?” featuring Dr. Susan Rogers, Healthcare-NOW Podcast, Oct. 12, 2022
Last Week Tonight: John Oliver’s MA takedown
Ready to take action? Write a letter to the editor or op-ed warning about the dangers of Medicare Advantage. You may also wish to call your member of Congress at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to both crack down on Medicare Advantage profiteering and make necessary improvements to the Traditional Medicare program. Questions? Email anika@pnhp.org.