Editor:

Reject Project 2025 — no privatization of Medicare by insurance companies!

We must preserve this public good and protect it from Project 2025 (Medicare Advantage plans). This platform intends to line the pockets of private insurers at the expense of patient care — profits over people!

This proposal by the far right (conservative) Heritage Foundation would make “privatized Medicare” the default option for new beneficiaries with automatic enrollment, without your consent and eliminating your choice for “traditional Medicare.” If implemented, this costly (nationwide) plan would speed up Medicare’s insolvency to six years sooner (2030) than currently projected.

Medicare Advantage plans receive 122% more funding than traditional Medicare for covering similar beneficiaries, costing an additional $83 billion in 2024 alone! More than 24 million enrolled in Advantage plans would face limited provider networks with 70% of area doctors unavailable through these plans. Fifteen million people would be under-insured due to reduced benefits in many of these plans.

Our seniors value Medicare! My close family member’s first eight years of cancer treatment was covered primarily by Medicare. We are fortunate! Even though necessary, “out of pocket” costs were high for a supplemental plan and a pharmacy discount plan (for chemotherapy), Medicare as a primary payor saved us from going broke.

Demand that Congress reject Project 2025. Traditional Medicare must be preserved and Congress must take action to fortify it — take back the billions of wasted dollars on Medicare Advantage overpayments.

Lee Gresko
Mountlake Terrace