League of Women Voters Presents
The Privatization of Medicare
On Thursday, March 30 Dr. Marvin Malek, past president of Vermont Physicians for a National Health Program (VT PNHP), will give a presentation on the privatization of Medicare. The program, sponsored by the LWVVT, will take place at 1:00 pm, at the Barre Area Senior Center, 131 South Main Street, Barre. Dr. Malek will discuss Medicare Advantage, DCEs and the new ACO/REACH program. The event is cosponsored by VT PNHP, Vermont Health Care for All, Vermont State Employees' Association, and Vermont Workers' Center.
For the first 20 years after its implementation in 1965, the Medicare program reimbursed hospitals and doctors directly for the care they provided to Medicare enrollees. Beginning in 1985, some Medicare recipients were given the option of electing to have their benefit managed by a private company, currently known as the Medicare Advantage program. Last year, officials in the Medicare program announced that by the year 2030, they would be involuntarily enrolling the remaining Medicare enrollees into another managed care program—the ACO/REACH program.
The goal of the March 30th program is to discuss the impacts of these privatization initiatives on the care that Medicare beneficiaries receive, on the costs Medicare beneficiaries will be facing, and the impacts of these changes on the financial stability of the Medicare program.
Marvin Malek, MD MPH, received his medical training at SUNY Upstate in Syracuse, NY, residency training at Cook County Hospital and earned a Masters Degree in Health Policy at Harvard University's School of Public Health. Dr. Malek has spent most of his career in community medicine, providing care to underserved populations, including Latino, Black, and Navajo communities. He currently works on the hospital care team at Springfield Hospital in Vermont.