Hurt insurers' profits — not patients on Medicaid, Medicare

As lawmakers consider cuts to Medicaid and Medicare amid rising budget pressures, they must resist the urge to balance the books on the backs of vulnerable patients. The true cost drivers aren’t those receiving care, but the corporations profiting from administering it.

In Georgia, Medicaid — the joint federal-state program to care for low-income and disabled residents — is increasingly outsourced to private insurers through managed care organizations. Many of the same corporations that act as MCOs also offer Medicare Advantage plans — private sector alternatives to traditional Medicare care for seniors.

These companies are supposed to deliver efficiency and better outcomes with our taxpayer dollars. Instead, many have built fraud-ridden profit machines — delaying care, denying claims