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This year, the majority of Americans eligible for Medicare coverage chose to enroll in private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans rather than Traditional Medicare. Insurance companies that run these MA plans spend significant sums of money to blanket seniors with marketing that highlights the supposed advantages of MA like low upfront costs, supplemental coverage, and other unique perks like subsidizing gym memberships. However, the ads leave seniors in the dark on the downsides of MA like heavily restricted networks that damage one’s choice of provider along with dangerous delays and denials of necessary care. At the same time, both the Biden Administration and many members of Congress from both parties have voiced support for the further privatization of Medicare through growing Medicare Advantage.
In this article, we will debunk several pervasive myths about MA that proponents and insurance giant owners push in their effort to continue privatizing Medicare at the expense of patients.
Myth #1: Medicare Advantage Is Medicare
The inclusion of the term Medicare in Medicare Advantage — otherwise known as Medicare Part C — is incredibly misleading, as the program is de facto government-subsidized private insurance.
Traditional Medicare is public insurance, where tax revenues are directly used to cover healthcare for seniors and some disabled people. It employs a fee-for-service (FFS) payment model, where the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) directly pays for each covered service by a healthcare provider.
In contrast, MA consists of thousands of different plans mostly provided by health insurance giants like UnitedHealthcare and Humana. Seven large insurance companies accounted for 84% of MA plan enrollment in 2023. Rather than directly covering care as needed, the federal government pays lump sum Medicare dollars, known as capitated payments, to these private insurers for each patient. MA plans make money by spending as little as possible on patient care in order to keep as much of the leftover taxpayer money as possible.
In other words, MA is private insurance supported by government subsidies, and it is a form of managed care by health insurance companies. MA is not a government-managed public health insurance program like Traditional Medicare.
Myth #2: Medicare Advantage Saves Money
Medicare Advantage has never saved taxpayers money as a substitute for Traditional Medicare. In fact, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), taxpayers have spent more on financing MA than they would have if everyone was covered under Traditional Medicare.
In fact, Congress and CMS have been working to try to stop MA companies from gaming the system to steal taxpayer money. A 2023 study by the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) estimates that CMS overpaid MA plans between $88-$140 billion in 2022 alone through various practices like pretending patients were sicker than they were along with targeting healthier, less costly seniors to enroll in their plans. Overpayments have also caused all Medicare beneficiaries to pay billions in higher Medicare Part B premiums.
Through taking taxpayer subsidies, MA has been significantly more profitable for insurance companies than the private plans offered to the rest of Americans. In 2021, MA companies had a gross profit margin of $1,730 per enrollee, which is more than double their profit margin on the individual market ($745). In 2023, Humana ended its entire commercial insurance business in order to entirely focus on government-funded programs like MA.
Some who claim MA saves money point to how MA spending is growing at a slower rate than Traditional Medicare. However, their point assumes that people enrolled in MA and Traditional Medicare share the same characteristics, which is false. MA targets and enrolls people who are healthier, less likely to use medical services, and, thus, less expensive to cover than those in Traditional Medicare.
Myth #3: Medicare Advantage Is Necessary To Save Beneficiaries Out-of-Pocket Spending
One of the primary appeals of Medicare Advantage is the idea that it saves beneficiaries money. However, this is highly dependent on how much care someone needs. The extent to which MA does save money for patients is not a natural result of its supposed superiority; it is due to intentional political sabotage and decision making.
Patients in both MA and Traditional Medicare have to pay a monthly premium for Medicare Part B ($174.40 in 2024). Then, Traditional Medicare covers 80% of costs for outpatient services. Beneficiaries are responsible for paying the remaining 20%, with no limit on out-of-pocket (OOP) payments. However, Traditional Medicare fully covers inpatient services such as hospitalization after a patient meets a deductible ($1,632 in 2024). For prescription drug coverage, Traditional Medicare beneficiaries pay a monthly premium for a Medicare Part D plan run by a private insurer ($40 average in 2023).
Traditional Medicare beneficiaries can purchase a supplemental Medigap insurance plan to cover most OOP spending (average monthly premium of $139 in 2023), which a plurality (41%) did in 2021. Eighty-nine percent of people in Traditional Medicare had some form of supplemental coverage in 2023, such as through Medicaid (19%) or their employer/union (31%).
In MA, premiums, coinsurance rates, and deductibles vary across the thousands of different plans. However, the average monthly premium is very low ($18.50 estimate for 2024), and many plans have $0 premiums. Additionally, CMS mandates that MA plans have an OOP spending limit. The average limit for in-network services was $4,835 in 2023; when accounting for both in- and out-of-network services, the average limit was $8,659. Ninety-seven percent of MA beneficiaries are in plans that incorporate drug coverage, and the average premium is $10 per month (73% of enrollees had no premiums for drug coverage).
For healthy individuals without need of expensive healthcare services and products, MA saves money due to its low premiums. However, while Traditional Medicare users with a Medigap plan spend more money upfront due to higher premiums, they can save thousands of dollars for expensive care that would reach their OOP limit if they were enrolled in MA.
However, many seniors simply cannot afford purchasing a Medigap plan, so they have little choice but to enroll in MA. In 2023, 52% of MA beneficiaries earned annual incomes around $25,000. Income limitations disproportionately lead Blacks (65%) and Latinos (69%) to choose MA compared to Whites (48%), as 78% and 81% of Black and Latino MA beneficiaries earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level, respectively.
Traditional Medicare beneficiaries without any form of supplemental coverage (11% of Traditional Medicare users in 2021) most certainly have to pay more for healthcare due to Part A deductible and the lack of any OOP cap. However, the lack of an OOP cap in Traditional Medicare is entirely a result of politics and can be changed. While CMS requires MA plans to have an OOP cap, policymakers have elected not to create one for Traditional Medicare. Congress could legislate a $5,000 OOP cap for Traditional Medicare; this would cost just $39 billion annually or just 28-44% of the overpayments made to MA plans in 2022.
Considering the fact that MA has never saved taxpayer money, the history of billions of dollars in overpayments to MA plans, and the fact that Congress could cost-efficiently lower costs for those in Traditional Medicare, it is a myth that MA is necessary to save patients money.
Myth #4: Medicare Advantage Improves Health Outcomes
Through incentivizing the use of preventative care, Medicare Advantage’s capitated payment model should supposedly increase the health of its beneficiaries. However, there is not sufficient evidence to prove this. Additionally, the sickest patients opt for Traditional Medicare and low reimbursement rates decrease the willingness of healthcares providers to accept MA patients.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reviewed existing studies and found that there is not strong evidence of widespread significant differences in health outcomes between Americans enrolled in MA versus Traditional Medicare. MA plans push patients to more preventative care visits, and they also incentivize beneficiaries to take on healthy habits like getting and using a gym membership. In contrast, Traditional Medicare is more likely to send its beneficiaries to higher-rated cancer facilities, nursing facilities, and home health agencies. Issues with data quality and differences in the populations who choose MA versus Traditional Medicare also render direct comparisons between the two programs quite weak.
Incentivized to spend as little as possible, MA plans pay healthcare providers less than Traditional Medicare. As a result, an increasing number of doctors and providers are declining to accept MA patients, further restricting MA networks and access to care. Additionally, lower payments can prevent doctors from providing the best quality care. In comparison, around 99% of non-pediatric physicians accept Traditional Medicare.
Medicare Advantage is a great option for relatively healthy beneficiaries who do not expect to need intensive care for serious illnesses and injuries. Capitated payments do incentivize MA insurance companies to save money by investing in healthy, preventative care and programs. At the same time, the model also incentivizes MA plans to avoid covering the highest quality care for the people most in need.
To restrict care that beneficiaries would otherwise receive in Traditional Medicare, MA companies delay and deny care through prior authorizations (PAs) and payment denials. In 2021, patients and their providers had to file 35 million PA requests in order to receive medical care. MA companies denied 2 million of these requests. People only bothered to appeal 11% of the time; however, those that did had a 82% success rate. In 2022, 94% of physicians surveyed by the American Medical Association reported experiencing PAs which caused delays to necessary care; 56% reported this occurring always or often. Eighty percent reported that PAs caused the abandonment of recommended treatment, and 33% reported that they caused a serious adverse event for their patients.
There are many reasons for poor health outcomes in the United State: lack of healthcare access, high costs, low income, poor diet, and lack of exercise to name a few. The strategy of giving lump sums of money — mostly to insurance giants — and incentivizing them to spend as little as possible is not supported with evidence of improved health outcomes and does not directly tackle these greater issues.
Myth #5: Medicare Advantage Offers Benefits That Traditional Medicare Simply Cannot Match
A primary selling point of MA plans is that they offer supplemental benefits — mainly coverage for dental, vision, and hearing care — that Traditional Medicare does not provide. While this is true, it is misleading because it does not reveal the quality of this coverage.
While the vast majority of MA plans offer supplemental benefit coverage, there isn’t evidence that their beneficiaries actually utilize dental, hearing, and vision services much more than people enrolled in Traditional Medicare. In fact, there is some evidence to the contrary regarding dental care. This is because MA supplemental “coverage” does not protect patients from having to spend significant sums of money out of their own pockets.
Most MA plans have high coinsurance rates along with low annual caps on how much insurance will cover. So, MA coverage predominantly doesn’t help patients with expensive dental, hearing, or vision treatments. This prevents many seniors from being able to afford care even though they technically have coverage. Ultimately, MA plans constantly advertise that they offer supplemental coverage, but they leave Americans in the dark on how little financial help they will actually receive.
Additionally, taxpayers and Traditional Medicare beneficiaries are effectively subsidizing these additional benefits. Not only has MA never saved taxpayer money, it is further depleting the Medicare Trust Fund and raising Part B premiums for all Medicare beneficiaries. These higher premiums and taxpayer overpayments allow MA companies to market supplemental benefits along with the aforementioned low premiums which attract healthier and lower-income seniors.
Instead of enriching MA companies, Traditional Medicare could provide dental, hearing, and vision benefits for less than $42 billion in 2025, which is 30-48% of the overpayments taxpayers made to MA in 2022. Unlike in MA, this coverage would not be limited to restricted provider networks.
Myth #6: Medicare Advantage Is Necessary To Lower Healthcare Spending
Healthcare spending overall and Medicare spending specifically increase every year more than inflation. The United States spends more money per capita than any other country on healthcare. The average cost of healthcare per person in other wealthy nations is roughly half as much as the United States.
To lower Medicare spending, proponents of Medicare Advantage tout the benefits of “value-based” care compared to Traditional Medicare’s FFS model. Critics claim that FFS incentivizes wasteful spending and opportunities for doctors to become rich by billing Medicare for services unnecessary to patient health.
In contrast, “value-based” care involves CMS giving lump sums of money (capitated payments) to MA companies for each patient, supposedly incentivising efficient healthcare spending on preventative care. Through spending less and, ideally, keeping patients healthier, MA companies get to keep more money.
While there are case studies of mission-driven organizations succeeding with capitated payments, this does not hold true for the large, for-profit insurance giants that dominate MA. Rather, the major MA companies’ primary goal is to maximize profit. Therefore, they typically take as much taxpayer money as feasible by gaming the system while restricting care in order to spend less and keep as much as possible.
However, the entire premise that reducing healthcare usage with a more restrictive insurance policy is the best means to lower healthcare spending is baseless. The United States does not use healthcare services more than the other countries who spend far less, and the same is true for Medicare compared to similar foreign populations.
Then why is healthcare so expensive in the United States? Prices. Healthcare prices in the United States are significantly higher than other countries. This reality is a result of factors like market consolidation (lack of competition), patents, administrative waste, and more.
Rather than combat the large hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, private equity companies, insurance giants, and other powerful private interests who control armies of lobbyists and excesses of campaign cash, MA proponents provide a simple solution: make people get less care. This is a convenient solution which happens to also further enrich and get the blessing of dominant insurers like UnitedHealth Group.
All in All, Medicare Advantage Is a Scam
Congress created Medicare Advantage with the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). After signing the bill into law, President George W. Bush boasted how MA would lower costs, expand benefits, afford seniors more choices, and improve quality of care. However, this supposed modernization of Medicare was really a scheme to privatize, gifting billions of dollars to insurance companies while seeking to end Traditional Medicare.
In reality, MA has never saved taxpayer money. Through gaming the system of capitated payments, MA insurance companies have reaped billions in overpayments — which have also increased the amount all Medicare beneficiaries pay in Part B premiums.
Through restricting care and taxpayer subsidies, MA plans do offer a lower cost alternative to Traditional Medicare, especially for beneficiaries who cannot afford a supplemental Medigap plan. Additionally, it can offer supplemental benefit coverage unavailable under Traditional Medicare, even if the quality of such coverage is poor and provides limited financial support. However, this reality is not because of its inherent design; it is a result of the political sabotage of Traditional Medicare. Congress can cap OOP expenses and provide supplemental coverage for Traditional Medicare with the same money it overpays to MA insurance giants lining their profit margins.
The only choices MA afforded seniors has been which private plan they want to choose. The program destroys beneficiaries’ choice of doctor due to restricted networks. Additionally, there is not sufficient evidence that MA significantly improves health outcomes while health providers are increasingly dropping MA plans due to low reimbursements, further limiting the number of providers MA patients can see. At the same time, current comparisons between MA and Traditional Medicare are unfair as long as policy makers refuse to fix the cost gaps in the latter.
Within both the Medicare and entire American populations, healthcare costs are rising at the same time as health outcomes are worsening, especially in comparison to peer nations. While MA is a convenient solution for insurance companies, it neither addresses the causes of high prices nor poor health outcomes.
MA proponents consistently point to the increasing share of beneficiaries who choose MA over Traditional Medicare as evidence of success. Along with millions of dollars spent on deceptive advertising by insurance companies, this is the consequence of policymaker’s failure to update Traditional Medicare.
It’s past time Medicare beneficiaries are given a real choice. Instead of overpaying insurance giants to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, Congress can cap OOP expenses at $5,000 annually and provide supplemental benefits in Traditional Medicare.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.
(202) 293-5380"This executive order, based on nothing but years of disinformation, is blatantly unlawful and a naked attempt to suppress the votes of targeted communities," said LULAC's national president.
A pro-voter coalition on Monday sued to block U.S. President Donald Trump's recent executive order that critics warn would make it harder for tens of millions of eligible citizens to cast their ballots in state and federal elections.
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and State Democracy Defenders Fund (SDDF) sued the executive office of the president and members of Trump's administration in a Washington, D.C. federal court on behalf of three advocacy groups: the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Secure Families Initiative (SFI), and Arizona Students' Association (ASA).
"The president's executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans. It is simply not within the president's authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way," said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at CLC.
"Donald Trump is attempting to wrongfully impede voting by millions of Americans with this latest unlawful executive order."
As the complaint puts it: "Under our Constitution, the president does not dictate election rules. States and Congress do... Through the order, the president attempts to exercise powers that the Constitution withholds from him and instead assigns to the states and to Congress. The order violates and subverts the separation of powers by lawlessly arrogating to the president authority to declare election rules by executive fiat."
Trump's order includes provisions enabling the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Department of Homeland Security to subpoena voting records for "list maintenance," restricting mail-in voting, and requiring the Election Assistance Commission to include documentary proof of citizenship on the federal voting form.
"Donald Trump is attempting to wrongfully impede voting by millions of Americans with this latest unlawful executive order. But it will not work. In America voters get to pick their president—presidents don't get to pick their voters, declared SDDF co-founder and executive chair Norm Eisen. "We are proud to stand up for the ability of every American voter to cast their ballots freely and fairly through this litigation."
Advocacy group leaders detailed how provisions in Trump's order would impact various communities if the directive isn't struck down.
"Military families, veterans, caregivers, and overseas voters deserve secure access to the very democracy we serve to protect—no matter where we're stationed or how we serve," said SFI executive director Sarah Streyder. "This new order would mean that the veteran who is a full-time caretaker at home, who has done everything right, may now be shut out of the ballot box due to outdated paperwork."
"This new order would mean that the military family stationed on the other side of the world from home, who crossed every t and dotted every i—their military ID will no longer suffice, and due to mail delays outside of their control, their ballot will never count," Streyder warned.
Roman Palomares, LULAC's national president, declared that "this executive order, based on nothing but years of disinformation, is blatantly unlawful and a naked attempt to suppress the votes of targeted communities—disproportionately impacting the Latino community."
"We are proud to join this coalition seeking to stop the effort to silence the voice and votes of the U.S. electorate—and particularly of voters of color," Palomares continued. "Our democracy depends on all voters feeling confident that they can vote freely and that their vote will be counted accurately."
Trump orders states to open voter files to Musk. Exec Order will cost 21 million their vote. ▶️ Get the full story: www.gregpalast.com/trump-execut...
[image or embed]
— Greg Palast (@gregpalast.bsky.social) March 30, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Kyle Nitschke, co-executive director of Arizona Students' Association, highlighted that some states have imposed voter suppression laws similar to Trump's executive order (EO).
"The Arizona Students' Association has seen firsthand what these egregious citizenship requirements really are, an attempt to suppress the vote. In Arizona we have a dual-track federal registration system, and the voters being affected by citizenship requirements are college students registering to vote for the first time, unsheltered voters, and Native voters, Nitschke said. "There are already extensive citizenship checks in place when registering to vote, Trump's EO is a clear attack on our voting rights. Our student members believe we should live in a country where it's accessible and convenient to be a part of democracy."
The Associated Pressnoted that "Monday's lawsuit against Trump's elections order could be just the first of many challenges. Other voting rights advocates have said they're considering legal action, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Democratic attorney Marc Elias. Several Democratic state attorneys general have said they are looking closely at the order and suspect it is illegal."
Monday evening, the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Governors Association, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced that they also filed a suit against the order in the D.C. court. They are represented by Elias Law Group.
"This executive order is an unconstitutional power grab from Donald Trump that attacks vote by mail, gives DOGE sensitive personal information, and makes it harder for states to run their own free and fair elections," they said in a joint statement. "It will even make it harder for military members serving overseas and married women who have changed their name to have their votes count."
"Donald Trump and DOGE are doing this as an attempt to rationalize their repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories and set the groundwork to throw out legal votes and ignore election outcomes they do not like," they added. "It's anti-American and Democrats are using every tool at our disposal—including taking Trump to court—to stop this illegal overreach that undermines our democracy."
The pro-voter lawsuits are also among several legal challenges to Trump's long list of executive actions since January 20. As Common Dreamsreported earlier Monday, the National Treasury Employees Union filed a federal suit in the same D.C. court over Trump's recent order that aims to strip collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government workers.
It's not just the Trump administration that's working to make it more difficult for Americans to participate in democracy. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are also planning to hold a vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act this week.
"If the bill passes, more than 21 million Americans could be blocked from voting," the Brennan Center for Justice warned on social media Monday. "The SAVE Act would be the first voter suppression bill ever passed by Congress. Lawmakers should be protecting the freedom to vote—not restricting it. We urge Congress to reject the SAVE Act."
This article has been updated to include the Democratic lawsuit.
"We do not need to—and indeed should not—turn public schools into Sunday schools."
A group of 42 Arkansas faith leaders on Monday called on the General Assembly to reject Republican-led legislation that would force every classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments and the national motto, "In God We Trust."
"We are faith leaders from across Arkansas who value religious freedom for all. We urge you to vote against S.B. 433, which would require the display of a government-selected version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom of all elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools and in every other public building or facility maintained with taxpayer funds," a letter to lawmakers signed by the 42 clerics states. The bill was passed by the state Senate on March 19 by a vote of 27-4.
"A government mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all government buildings demeans religious freedom."
State Sen. Jim Dotson (R-34), one of the bill's primary sponsors, called the Ten Commandments "a historical reference point... that has basic things like you shall not kill, steal, commit adultery, those basic foundations of life that is good for everybody to keep front of mind so that we are hopefully living good lives."
However, the faith leaders—41 Christians and one Jew—said that "S.B. 433 is a misguided effort that undermines the faith and freedom we cherish."
"A government mandate that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all government buildings demeans religious freedom," their letter asserts. "The government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text. The government must respect the rights of individuals and faith communities to make decisions about the sacred texts that inform our religious understandings and practices."
"We do not need to—and indeed should not—turn public schools into Sunday schools," the signers continued. "We remain steadfast and united in affirming the values of religious freedom that are foundational to our democracy and will continue to push back against attempts to impose a singular religious viewpoint into our public institutions."
"Finally, we recognize that the Ten Commandments hold no religious meaning for thousands of Arkansans," the letter acknowledges. "The Ten Commandments are held in a different light for Arkansans who are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Unitarian Universalist, or who practice other religions or no religion at all."
Rev. Brittany Stillwell, associate pastor with students and families at Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, said in a statement that "as a Christian, I understand the Ten Commandments as holy and worthy of contemplation and I take them very seriously."
"They do not, however, belong in schools and other public spaces as a kitschy symbol of a shallow faith," she added. "I don't want the students I pastor to become desensitized to the holiness and reverence they are due. Religious liberty protects scripture from the whims of the government so that it might remain the elevated word from God we hold so dear."
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship director of advocacy Rev. Jennifer Hawks said that "growing up, I spent Easter weekends at my family's homestead in Bearden. My Arkansas aunts, uncles, and cousins played a crucial role in my spiritual formation and never needed the government to define for them Christian teachings or practices."
"When the state writes a CliffsNotes version of a religious text and mandates its use, we all lose," Hawks added, referring to the once-ubiquitous series of student study guides. "The state should not waste time trying to usurp our families and religious institutions. Leave religious instruction to us and don't turn public schools into Sunday schools."
Other Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed or introduced bills requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools or other government buildings. Last year, Louisiana became the only state to fully enact such legislation. However, last November, a federal judge blocked the law, calling it "unconstitutional on its face and in all applications."
Groups including the ACLU and Freedom From Religion Foundation oppose such bills, and faith leaders in other states including Missouri and Texas have also urged lawmakers to reject bills similar to Arkansas' S.B. 433.
While campaigning last year, U.S. President Donald Trump—who critics say has violated at least half of the commandments—expressed support for mandatory classroom display of the divine dicta.
In June 2017, a Ten Commandments monument was installed on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol. A day later, Michael Tate Reed II drove his car into the granite slab, destroying it. The monument was rebuilt with concrete bollards added for protection. Reed—who hads previously wrecked a similar monument at Oklahoma's Capitol—was later acquitted on mental health grounds.
In response to the Arkansas monument, the Satanic Temple fought for and won the right to install a statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed, winged being, on the state Capitol grounds. The statue—which contains two children fawning over Baphomet—was unveiled in 2018.
"If you're going to have one religious monument up then it should be open to others," Satanic Arkansas co-founder Ivy Forrester
said at the time, "and if you don't agree with that then let's just not have any at all."
"Genocide, ecocide, mass infanticide, rape, sexual assault, torture, slavery, sniping children, bombing hospitals, executing aid workers," said one critic. "We are funding an endless nightmare and it should haunt us forever."
As Israel Defense Forces bombing continued to kill and maim large numbers of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip over the weekend and into Monday, the discovery of the bodies of medical workers who were apparently executed by their captors and the publication of several reports in which Israeli soldiers admit to torturing prisoners and using civilians as human shields have drawn renewed war crimes accusations and calls for accountability.
On Sunday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had recovered the bodies of 15 Palestinian first responders from a mass grave, including eight Red Crescent workers and six Civil Defense personnel, who were killed by Israeli forces on March 23 while traveling "on duty" in five ambulances, a fire truck, and a United Nations vehicle in the al-Hashashin area of southern Gaza.
Jonathan Whittall, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, said Sunday that the vehicles were picked off "one by one."
"Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave," Whittall added. "We're digging them out with uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives. Instead, they ended up in a mass grave."
The IFRC condemns the killing of eight Palestine Red Crescent Society medics in Gaza. We are heartbroken. These dedicated humanitarians, killed while responding to the wounded, should have been protected. We mourn their loss and stand with the Palestine Red Crescent. Full statement: bit.ly/427LXxp
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— IFRC (@ifrc.org) March 30, 2025 at 11:47 AM
The Gaza Health Ministry said that "some of these bodies were bound and shot in the chest" before being "buried in a deep hole to prevent their identification."
Accusing Israel of a "heinous crime," the ministry called on U.N. agencies "and relevant international bodies to conduct an urgent investigation into these crimes and hold the occupation accountable for committing them."
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said troops opened fire on the convoy because it was "advancing suspiciously" toward their position.
"Following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad," the spokesperson claimed.
Israeli officials routinely claim—often with little or no evidence—that Palestinian first responders, United Nations workers, journalists, and other civilians that it kills are members of Hamas or other militant resistance groups.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement Sunday that it is "outraged" by the killings, which it called "the single most deadly attack on Red Cross Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017."
"After seven days of silence and having access denied to the area of Rafah where they were last seen, the bodies of ambulance officers Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer, and Ezzedine Shaath and first responder volunteers Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed Al Sharif, and Rifatt Radwan were retrieved today," the statement noted. "Ambulance officer Assad Al-Nassasra is still missing."
Noting that at least 30 Red Crescent workers and volunteers have been killed by Israeli forces during the war, IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain said: "I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not."
"Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules," Chapagain stressed. "These rules of international humanitarian law could not be clearer—civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected."
"Our network is in mourning, but this is not enough," he added. "Instead of another call on all parties to protect and respect humanitarians and civilians, I pose a question: When will this stop? All parties must stop the killing, and all humanitarians must be protected."
Journalist Mohammad Alsaafin compared the killings to last year's IDF massacre of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, five of her relatives, and two PRCS medics who rushed to the site of the attack in a doomed bid to rescue the wounded child after she called for help.
On Sunday, the British newspaper The Independent published an investigation into alleged Israeli torture of Palestinians detained at facilities including Ofer Prison in the illegally occupied West Bank and the notorious Sde Teiman base in the Negev Desert.
The report begins:
Handcuffed and cowering on the floor of a cell in a military base in southern Israel, the Palestinian found himself surrounded by five soldiers. Armed with dogs, the five reservists allegedly kicked, punched, and stamped on the man as he lay on the ground. Continuing their assault, they are accused of attacking him with Taser guns and sharp objects, sexually abusing him with these instruments. At one point, the soldiers allegedly stabbed him so hard that they pierced his buttocks and anus. The brutal alleged assault left the man hospitalized with a punctured lung, cracked ribs, and a tear in his rectum needing surgery for a stoma. He had not been charged with any crime.
The Independent noted details regarding some of the dozens of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody. The IDF is currently conducting its own probe into the deaths of at least 36 Sde Teiman prisoners, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.
"The fact that we see some signs of abuse means that this is probably the tip of the iceberg," said one Israeli physician who has overseen multiple autopsies on dead detainees.
In an anonymous testimony leaked to The Independent, one Sde Teiman guard described a prevailing attitude of "Yes, they need to be beaten, it must be done."
"We began looking for opportunities to do so," the soldier said, adding that when he spoke out against the beating of one detainee, he was told, "Shut up, you leftist, these are Gazans, these are terrorists, what's wrong with you?"
One former Sde Teiman detainee said that "every meter you moved, they beat you, they hit you, they insulted you; they used dogs, tear gas, and electric shock."
IDF troops and veterans who were posted at Sde Teiman have provided similar details about "Israel's Abu Ghraib," a reference to the U.S. torture prison outside Baghdad during the Iraq War. Israeli doctors and medics have described forced starvation and 24-hour shackling so severe that prisoners have had limbs amputated.
A number of Sde Teiman guards were arrested last year following the leak of a video allegedly showing them raping a Palestinian detainee. The arrests outraged far-right Israelis, a mob of whom stormed Sde Teiman in a failed bid to free the accused guards.
As The Independent noted, "Among those held in [Israeli] detention are many of Gaza's healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics." Some of these prisoners have died in custody, including the renowned surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who may have been raped to death, according to Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Earlier this month, an independent U.N. panel found that Israel has "systematically" used reproductive, sexual, and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinian men, women, and children during the war.
The IDF has responded to these and other allegations by claiming it "operates in accordance with international law."
However, the International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered a "complete siege" of Gaza blamed for deadly starvation and disease there—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case brought by South Africa.
Also on Sunday, Haaretz, Israel's oldest newspaper, published a piece by an anonymous Israel soldier who said that "in Gaza, almost every IDF platoon keeps a human shield."
"We operate a sub-army of slaves," the soldier said, describing how innocent Palestinians are used to check buildings for Hamas fighters or booby traps before IDF troops enter.
"I recently saw that the IDF's Military Police Criminal Investigation Division opened six investigations into the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, and my jaw dropped," he wrote. "I've seen cover-ups before, but this is a new low."
Previous reporting has detailed the IDF's widespread use of Palestinian civilians—including children—as human shields in Gaza. The IDF even has a name for the practice—the "mosquito protocol." In one case, an 80-year-old man was used as a human shield before being shot dead by Israeli troops.
The IDF's thoroughly documented use of noncombatants as human shields stands in start contrast with mostly baseless claims of Hamas using Palestinian civilians in such a manner.
The new reports come as Israeli forces continued their assault on Gaza. Health and medical officials in Gaza said at least 41 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes throughout the strip on Monday, the second day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. This followed the killing of at least 64 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday.
Approximately 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its assault on the embattled coastal enclave on March 18,
including hundreds of children. Israel's 542-day annihilation of Gaza has left more than 175,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led the deadliest-ever attack on Israel.