Medicare was enacted in 1965 as a “public good,” Hasegawa added, “one of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s star programs” to benefit all senior citizens, paid for from a payroll tax on employees and employers. More than $1.6 trillion has accumulated in the Medicare Trust Fund, a target for runaway Wall Street greed.

 

“Unfortunately, there is a move to privatize Medicare,” he continued, with Medicare Advantage permitted to pocket 15 percentof every Medicare dollar in administrative costs and profits. “No one has explained to me how Medicare Advantage provides more efficient healthcare while also collecting 15 percent in profits,” he said. Traditional Medicare administrative costs are under two percent. There are no profits.

 

This Senate Joint Memorial 8002, if approved by the Washington State Legislature, demands that Congress enact and Trump sign a law to terminate Medicare Advantage profiteering and preserve original Medicare.

 

Ed Weisbart, a retired physician and Vice President of Physicians for a National Health Program, hailed the Hasegawa measure. Speaking via Zoom from St. Louis, he stressed the importance of recouping the tens of billions – some estimates are as high as $140 billion – stolen from the Medicare Trust Fund by Medicare Advantage providers and using the money to help finance expanded Medicare benefits.

 

Karen Richter, PSARA Co-President, told the hearing that PSARA strongly supports SJM-8002. “Leveling the playing field,” she said, “would scrub overcharging and fraud from the Medicare system while allowing Medicare beneficiaries a real choice about which program they would prefer."

 

A level playing field will give traditional Medicare recipients the same benefits provided to Medicare Advantage enrollees –now just over half the 60 million Medicare recipients. Legislation is needed, said Richter, to restore Medicare “as the public good it was created to be in 1965 and to continue the tradition of Medicare being the lowest cost and most effective health care program in the United States.”

 

Anne Watanabe, speaking for the PSARA Race and Gender Equity Committee, also endorsed SJM 8002. “Unsurprisingly, higher percentages of seniors of lower income and seniors of color enroll in private Advantage plans,” she said, because they can’t afford supplemental insurance to cover the 20 percent not covered by traditional Medicare. They discover too late “that their private advantage plans impose limits on coverage or limited networks, especially in rural areas. Medicare Advantage profiteers delay or deny treatment recommended by their doctors….”

 

Ellen Menshew, a PSARA member from Clallam County, cited Olympic Medical Center (OMC) in Port Angeles, a public hospital that provides urgent care from Neah Bay on the Pacific coast to Quilcene near Hood Canal.

 

“OMC is more than just a healthcare provider,” she said “It is a lifeline. As the largest employer in our county with 1,500 employees, OMC plays a crucial role in our local community.

 

“The most glaring common denominator in the failure of rural hospitals is the impact of for-profit corporate insurance companies,” Menshew continued. These profiteers impose “delays, denials, and slow payments….leaving providers struggling to maintain financial stability and forcing hospitals into mergers or total acquisitions...”

 

The result, she charged, is reduction in services, staff cuts, and ultimately “a decline in the overall health and well being of the community.”

 

The presentations by PSARA leaders and allies both in oral and written testimony were compelling.  Two days after the hearing, SJM 8002 was passed out of the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee with a “do pass” recommendation.  The Republicans on the Committee voted against it.  Now legislation goes to the Senate Rules Committee, this is empowered to send the bill to the floor of the Senate for a vote by the entire Senate.​​

 

Tim Wheeler is a veteran activist and journalist, a member of PSARA's Executive Board, and a leader of PSARA organizing in Clallam County.