Ahead of Friday’s Senate confirmation hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), Public Citizen released a new research brief shining a light on the hundreds of millions of dollars Medicare Advantage companies have spent on lobbying.
“If Oz is confirmed as the CMS Administrator, attacks on traditional Medicare are likely to move into overdrive,” said Eagan Kemp, a health care policy advocate at Public Citizen. “We should strengthen Medicare by improving it and expanding access to it, not weaken it through further privatization.”
Top findings from the brief include:
- Since their inception in 2003, Medicare Advantage plans are estimated to have cost taxpayers more than $600 billion in overpayments. These overpayments are expected to grow to $1 trillion over the next decade.
- Just seven companies account for 84 percent of all Medicare Advantage enrollment. Disclosures reveal that these seven companies spent more than $330 million combined lobbying on all issues over the last five years, according to data from OpenSecrets.
- In 2024, these seven companies sent a combined 328 lobbyists to lobby the federal government. 223 lobbyists — nearly 70 percent of the total — reported specifically lobbying on “Medicare Advantage,” among other things.
- Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump’s nominee for Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, has endorsed the expansion of Medicare Advantage and has been one of the program’s most vocal supporters.
For more information on how Medicare Advantage harms seniors and taxpayers or on Dr. Oz’s conflicts of interest, contact Emily Leach at eleach@citizen.org.
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.