Chris Klomp, the Trump administration’s director of Medicare and deputy administrator of CMS, told STAT last month that enrolling seniors in Medicare Advantage plans by default “is something that we’re thinking through.” MA plans are funded by the federal government and run by private insurance companies such as UnitedHealthcare and Humana, both of them infamous for improperly denying necessary care to patients and overcharging taxpayers.
The default scheme was floated in the austerity-driven and extreme Project 2025 agenda that Trump has repeatedly tried to disavow. Currently, older Americans who have received Social Security benefits for at least four months before they turn 65 are automatically enrolled in traditional Medicare, and they can choose to enroll in an MA plan as an alternative.
“Another bad idea straight from Project 2025,” Rep. Mark Pocan said in response to Klomp’s comments on the proposed default enrollment change. “Medicare Advantage is private, for-profit insurance that overcharges American taxpayers by billions every year and regularly denies seniors the care they need.”
“Making Medicare Advantage the default option hurts patients and taxpayers,” Pocan added, “but it will make insurance execs a lot of money. With Mehmet Oz running the agency, they can move incredibly quickly to make that happen, and they are.”
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