Taxpayers spend 22% more per patient to support Medicare Advantage – the private alternative to Medicare that promised to cost less

Medicare Advantage was supposed to find efficiencies, but instead is costing taxpayers an extra $83 billion a year Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Medicare Advantage – the commercial alternative to traditional Medicare – is drawing down federal health care funds, costing taxpayers an extra 22% per enrollee to the tune of US$83 billion a year.

Medicare Advantage, also known as Part C, was supposed to save the government money. The competition among private insurance companies, and with traditional Medicare, to manage patient care was meant to give insurance companies an incentive to find efficiencies. Instead, the program’s payment rules overpay insurance companies on the taxpayer’s dime.