Medicare, Inc. Part 2: Taxpayers Paid for Care Denied by Insurers

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.2 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some of the sickest Medicare Advantage patients ran into problems getting end-of-life care. Ultimately many patients switched to traditional Medicare, costing taxpayers billions, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal. This is one of many Medicare Advantage practices that is now under government scrutiny. Both Congress and Medicare agency head Dr. Mehmet Oz are pushing for reforms to curb tactics that can boost federal payments to private insurers. The Department of Justice is also investigating major private insurance companies UnitedHealth, Aetna, Elevance Health and Humana. Jessica Mendoza discusses the investigations with WSJ’s Anna Wilde Mathews. Further Listening: -Medicare, Inc. Part 1: How Insurers Make Billions From Medicare -A Life-or-Death Insurance Denial Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Mom was an independent woman.
0:10.0	That's Tatiana Fasio, talking about her mom, Agnes.
0:13.0	Mom right now is 99 years old.
0:16.0	Longevity! Oh my goodness!
0:18.0	Longevity!
0:20.0	Tatiana says that her mom has always cherished her independence. Oh, my goodness. Longevity.
0:24.2	Tatiana says that her mom has always cherished her independence.
0:26.2	She didn't even use a walker.
0:28.3	She did have a cane.
0:38.7	But living in an apartment, which was about 12 to 14 steps from the street level without an elevator.
0:42.1	There was only one rail up the steps.
0:50.0	So she arranged with the landowner to install a rail on the other side of the steps.
0:52.5	I love that she was still advocating for herself.
0:53.3	Absolutely.
0:55.2	She's at her 90s at this point.
0:55.9	That's amazing.
0:59.2	Agnes was living in Los Angeles with her boyfriend,
1:01.0	and they had a careful routine.
1:03.3	Thank God for her partner.
1:04.8	They would go out to dinner.
1:11.9	She would very carefully maneuver the steps out of the apartment into the car.
1:17.0	But then, one night in 2022, just as they were heading into dinner,
	...

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