End Medicare Direct Contract Program

Dear Editor,

I just got a text from Citizen Action:

The Medicare Direct Contract Program — conceived by the Trump administration — allows for-profit companies to enroll people into a pseudo-Medicare program without their full knowledge or consent. Please call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and ask your Congress member to sign on to Rep. Pramila Jayapal's letter to Secretary Xavier Becerra demanding an end to this program. Thank you!

This sounded too wild to me. How could traditional Medicare be gutted with only few people knowing about it?

I couldn't believe it, so I checked it out, and — God help us — it's TRUE!

Take a look at the article in this link: https://www.nrln.org/wpcontent/uploads/2021/12/DCP-Nov30-Jake-Johnson-article-2021.pdf.

I'm going to call, and so should you! This is a scandal of the first order. To be handed off to the tender mercies of Wall Street? Horrible! And without even telling us about it? Worse! And that Biden has signed off on it? Unbelievable!

This is worse even than Medicare Advantage. There, at least, you had a choice about which policy you'd use. But this gives you no choice whatever.

Even if you're not on Medicare, someone you love may well be, and when the bean-counters decide that your elderly loved one is too expensive, guess who will be faced with either picking up the tab or consigning your loved one to death? YOU!

This is real, people! Please make the call. Spread the word. Tell all your friends. This travesty must not be allowed to happen!

— Paul Cooper,

Kingston, N.Y.