Portside

The corporatization of health care has changed the practice of medicine, causing many physicians to feel alienated from their work.

Last year, the federal government spent $20.5 billion overpaying private insurers for Medicare Advantage plans — and the industry’s aggressive lobbying campaign is kneecapping efforts by lawmakers to stop the scheme.

New York City’s Municipal Labor Committee voted March 9 to scrap some of the best retiree health care coverage in the country. The change would put 250,000 city retirees into a for-profit Medicare Advantage plan run by Aetna.

All the talk of Social Security “going bankrupt” or becoming “insolvent” is just plain wrong. This is just scare talk designed to convince people that big cuts to the program are necessary and inevitable. It’s simply not true.

The Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper sprinkled its coverage of an intensifying fight over Medicare with ads purchased by an organization that promotes private Medicare Advantage plans.

The Medicare privatization program "presents a threat to the integrity of traditional Medicare, and an opportunity for corporations to take money from taxpayers while denying care to beneficiaries," said Physicians for a National Health Program.

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New York City has kept a covenant with its workers: your wages will be modest — lower than those of your counterparts in the suburbs or the private sector — but as a full-time employee you will be entitled to health care coverage without premiums.

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