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american economic liberties project
Medicare Advantage Bribery Scheme Highlights 'Bad Behavior' Trump Wants to Reward
"The Trump administration recently announced it would substantially increase payments to private Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, rewarding their bad behavior."
May 02, 2025
Healthcare advocates have long condemned the for-profit insurance companies that manage Medicare Advantage plans for overbilling the federal government by hundreds of billions of dollars per year, using artificial intelligence and algorithms to deny patients' claims, and tricking patients with disabilities via deceptive marketing practices—and a lawsuit originally initiated by a whistleblower is accusing three such private insurance giants of taking part in overt bribery.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint Thursday under the False Claims Act, accusing three of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers—Aetna, Humana, and Elevance Health—of paying brokers hundreds of millions of dollars to steer beneficiaries toward their plans, and to steer disabled seniors away in an effort to keep them more profitable.
The American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) noted that the lawsuit comes from an unlikely place—the Trump administration, which last month announced it would substantially increase payments to the privately run plans, increasing rates to the tune of $25 billion in additional funds next year despite their history of defrauding the government and patients.
While applauding the DOJ for cracking down on the bribery scheme, the group noted that "despite its promises to crack down on such wasteful spending, the Trump administration recently announced it would substantially increase payments to private Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, rewarding their bad behavior."
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who President Donald Trump appointed to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has also advocated for a proposal called Medicare Advantage for All—further expanding the for-profit plans that now cover more than half of Americans who are eligible for Medicare.
"For years, these firms have driven seniors into worse care with deceptive marketing and discrimination, but now it's clear they're crooks too."
The lawsuit filed Thursday also named three brokers—eHealth, Inc., GoHealth, Inc., and SelectQuote Inc.—and said that between 2016-21, the companies "paid hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to the defendant brokers in exchange for enrollments into the insurers' Medicare Advantage plans."
The brokers are accused of directing beneficiaries to the plans that paid them the most in kickbacks, regardless of the suitability of the plans. They also allegedly provided their employees with incentives to sell plans based on the payments from the three insurers and refused to sell Medicare Advantage plans for the three companies if they didn't pay the brokers sufficiently.
Aetna and Humana are also accused of conspiring with the brokers to "discriminate against Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities whom they perceived to be less profitable," threatening to withhold payments unless brokers enrolled fewer disabled senior citizens.
"Private Medicare Advantage plans routinely fail to deliver quality care—especially for seniors and the most vulnerable—and are among the most wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive actors in our healthcare system," said Emma Freer, senior policy analyst for healthcare at AELP. "For years, these firms have driven seniors into worse care with deceptive marketing and discrimination, but now it's clear they're crooks too—bribing brokers behind closed doors because they know no one would choose these plans on a level playing field."
In addition to cracking down on the bribery scheme, Freer called on Trump's DOJ to "move swiftly on its ongoing monopolization and fraud investigations in the largest Medicare Advantage plan provider, UnitedHealth Group."
The DOJ opened an investigation in February into UnitedHealth's effect on competition in insurance, pharmacy benefit management, physician networks, and other sectors of the for-profit healthcare industry.
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'This Will Gut the FTC': Republicans Push Musk-Backed Plan to Kill Key Antitrust Law
"Jim Jordan and House Judiciary Republicans are directly undermining both current and future litigation against the monopolies that gouge and censor Americans."
Apr 29, 2025
House Republicans are set to consider legislation on Wednesday that experts say would effectively eliminate a law that gives the Federal Trade Commission sole authority to protect the American public from corporations engaging in "unfair methods of competition."
The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), released the bill Monday as part of a sweeping, filibuster-proof reconciliation package that Republicans are looking to pass as soon as next month.
The new bill states that "all FTC antitrust actions, all FTC antitrust employees, all FTC antitrust assets, and all FTC antitrust funding" must be "transferred to the attorney general." The proposal is virtually identical to Republican legislation that Elon Musk, a lieutenant of President Donald Trump and the richest person in the world, endorsed earlier this year.
Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, observed Monday that the House Judiciary Committee measure is "not just a bill to change the office locations and reporting structures." Specifically, Stoller noted that the bill doesn't explicitly transfer to the Justice Department the FTC's authority under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to combat "unfair methods of competition."
"That authority," Stoller wrote, "remains with an agency that has no staff and no capacity to litigate, which means it could die."
Alvaro Bedoya, who is currently engaged in a legal fight to get his job back at the FTC after Trump fired him and another Democratic commissioner last month, echoed Stoller's concerns, writing on social media that the Republican bill "doesn't transfer the laws that FTC enforces, or authority to enforce those laws."
"This will gut the FTC," Bedoya wrote, noting that the agency's legal action against pharmacy benefit managers—pharmaceutical industry middlemen—would likely be among the casualties of the Republican bill, given that "the sole law that the FTC alleges was broken in all three counts was that core prohibition against 'unfair methods of competition.'"
Stoller pointed out in his blog post that Section 5 is also used "in the antitrust case against Amazon" and "another case against Corteva/Syngenta over exclusive dealing in seeds and chemicals." It was also "the authority used to ban noncompete agreements," he wrote.
"These cases, as well as every consent decree ever reached under Section 5, are now at risk," Stoller added.
The House Judiciary Committee is slated to mark up the legislation on Wednesday afternoon, starting at 2:00 pm ET.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement Monday that the measure as a whole is "laden with language attempting to protect corporate wrongdoers."
"One provision appears to effectively eliminate the FTC pro-competition division," said Gilbert. "Another set of provisions makes significant changes to the already overreaching Congressional Review Act. One measure says that major rules that raise revenue go into effect only if Congress proactively approves them. Another section says for the next four years Congress has to affirmatively approve rules for them not to expire."
"If made law," she warned, "this would sign a death warrant for a slew of important consumer, worker, and environmental protections."
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Watchdog Says Trump Tariff Pause Lays Bare 'Just One More Con on Working People'
"All he has shown is that he'll cave to Wall Street's hand-wringing and prioritize his own power over real people's plight," said one expert at Public Citizen.
Apr 09, 2025
"Trump's 'will he, won't he' tariff chaos is just one more con on working people."
That's what Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director at the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a Wednesday statement after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-pause for what he has called "reciprocal" tariffs, excluding China.
"He claimed that the so-called 'reciprocal tariffs' would protect American jobs, but these reckless tariffs were never designed to do that," she said of Trump. "He just wants to wield threats as a schoolyard bully while giving his billionaire buddies sweetheart deals."
St. Louis warned that "when he says he's going to 'negotiate,' he means more harmful free trade agreements that double down on the failed trade model he claims to oppose and that force countries to gut public interest protections for the benefit of Big Tech, Big Pharma, and other corporate giants."
"Who's left out of his megalomaniacal game? The workers he claimed to support."
"And he wants U.S. companies to beg for exemptions from his tariffs, as they did in his first term. This is all part of Trump's authoritarianism and corruption, forcing countries and businesses to bend the knee just as he is doing with law firms and universities," she stressed. "Who's left out of his megalomaniacal game? The workers he claimed to support. All he has shown is that he'll cave to Wall Street's hand-wringing and prioritize his own power over real people's plight."
St. Louis wasn't alone in continuing to blast Trump's tactics around tariffs, which have led some economists to conclude that the president does not actually even understand how international trade works.
"It took a month to 'negotiate a deal,' but it only took one day for Trump to hit the brakes on his nonsensical new tax on autos from Canada and Mexico," Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a Wednesday statement. "This endless flip-flopping and bluster is just further proof that Donald Trump has no economic strategy beyond slapping tariffs on our trading partners."
"Instead of coming up with a real plan to get American workers a fair shake, he's making the United States into an international joke and driving up prices for U.S. consumers," he added. "If Republicans in Congress allow him to keep this up, Trump will keep yo-yoing on tariffs and using threats to pressure U.S. companies to stay in line instead of fighting back against this senseless economic war on American families."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime critic of "disastrous unfettered free trade deals," said in a lengthy statement that "targeted tariffs can be a powerful tool to stop corporations from outsourcing American jobs... But Trump's chaotic across-the-board tariffs are not the way to do it."
"What Trump is doing is unconstitutional. Trump has claimed supposed 'emergency' powers to bypass Congress and impose unilateral tariffs on hundreds of countries... This is another step toward authoritarianism," the senator asserted. "And let's be clear about why Trump is doing all this: to give massive tax breaks to billionaires."
"These tariffs will cost working families thousands of dollars a year, and Trump plans to use that revenue to help pay for a huge tax break for the richest people in America. That is what Trump and Republicans in Congress are working on right now: If they have their way on the tariffs and their huge tax bill, most Americans will see their taxes go up, while those on top will get a huge tax break," he added. "Enough is enough. We need a coherent trade policy that puts working people first."
Despite warnings that the costs of his planned tariffs would be passed on to consumers, Trump unveiled the duties last week, causing stocks to plummet and fueling recession warnings and speculation that he's tanking the economy on purpose.
Trump's tariffs took effect at midnight Wednesday. By the early afternoon, the president declared a partial pause via his Truth Social platform. He said that more than 75 countries have reached out "to negotiate a solution."
In clarifying comments to reporters on Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the 10% baseline tariffs will remain in effect, but higher duties targeting various nations are suspended. He also reiterated that the administration's message is, "Do not retaliate, and you will be rewarded."
The exception to the pause is China, which initially hit back by announcing 34% import duties on American goods last Friday. Faced with Trump's 104% rate on Wednesday, China hiked that to 84% and imposed restrictions on 18 U.S. companies.
Trump wrote on social media Wednesday that "based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World's Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately."
The Chinese government issued a travel advisory on Wednesday, saying in a statement, "Recently, due to the deterioration of China-U.S. economic and trade relations and the domestic security situation in the United States, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminds Chinese tourists to fully assess the risks of traveling to the United States and be cautious."
The Hill reported that during a Wednesday press briefing, Lin Jian, China's Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said that "the U.S. is seeking hegemony in the name of reciprocity, sacrificing the legitimate interests of all countries to serve its own selfish interests, and prioritizing the U.S. over international rules. This is typical unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying."
"The abuse of tariffs by the United States is tantamount to depriving countries, especially those in the Global South, of their right to development," he added.
Before Trump announced the pause, the European Union was planning to respond to Trump's steel tariffs with "levies of up to 25% on a sweeping list of U.S. products," The Washington Postreported. "There was no immediate comment from the European Union, and it was unclear how Trump's latest announcement might affect the E.U. countermeasures approved Wednesday."
Although stocks soared after Trump's pause announcement, many experts remain skeptical and demanded transparency around the administration's global trade talks.
"Absent transparency about what is being demanded, we could end up with the worst of all outcomes—a bunch of bad special interest deals, all of the economic damage caused by tariff uncertainty and no trade rebalancing, U.S. manufacturing capacity, or goods jobs," said Lori Wallach, director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project, in a Wednesday statement.
"The Trump administration could be striking deals with dozens of countries, but absent transparency, the public will not know whether their interests or Trump's billionaire Cabinet and friends on Wall Street or his family are being served," she pointed out. "Deals must focus on addressing the mercantilist practices that some countries employ, which fuel the extreme global trade imbalances that have deindustrialized the United States and today deny the benefits of trade to numerous countries worldwide."
Wallach emphasized that "the Trump administration must not use these talks to bully countries into gutting their online privacy and Big Tech anti-monopoly policies or undermining their food safety, health, or environmental laws."
"The chaos of these whipsaw tariffs flip-flops is already causing economic chaos and losses, undermining confidence in America and our markets," she added. "Cutting deals in secret only adds to that uncertainty and risks corruption, which won't just hurt Trump's stated goal of investment in U.S. manufacturing but the economy as a whole."
While experts like Wallach call for transparency in the tariff process, many congressional Republicans are working to further empower Trump. Nearly all GOP members of the U.S House of Representatives
voted Wednesday for a rule that blocks lawmakers' ability to force a vote on repealing the president's import duties for 90 days.
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