Humana, one of the nation’s biggest providers of Medicare Advantage, was last week the latest health insurer to take aim at “Medicare for All” proposals that would result in a government-run single-payer form of coverage. But Humana’s CEO became the latest health insurance executive to come out against single payer, joining UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann who two weeks ago said certain Medicare for All proposals would lead to “the wholesale disruption of American health care.”The latest tactic of health insurers is to bring specific examples that contrast traditional Medicare with Medicare Advantage. And the counter to single payer Medicare is coming from CEOs rather than their lobbies who historically have fought such policy battles. “Humana (Medicare Advantage) members and value-based care settings are going to the ER 7% less and hospital admissions are 5% lower than traditional fee-for-service Medicare,” Broussard said. Humana’s individual Medicare Advantage membership jumped 14% to 3.4 million as of March 31.

Source: Forbes May 05, 2019 12:22 UTC