t’s more than a little ironic that the for-profit Medicare Advantage program – which was supposed to save everyone money – is actually going to increase costs for people in traditional medicare. Congressional investigators blame this year’s spike in Medicare Part premiums on Medicare Advantage overbilling the government by billions of dollars. Fresh reporting from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) details how those overpayments translated into an estimated $13.4 billion in extra Part B premiums in 2025 alone. In other words, every person with Part B — including those who do not enroll in Medicare Advantage — is effectively subsidizing excess payments to private insurers. This revelation is only the latest in a series of Medicare Advantage scandals.

Over the years, we here at the National Committee have talked a lot about the disadvantages of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. These plans — which have become a gold mine for profit-focused insurers and their Wall Street backers — cover over half of Medicare beneficiaries, and are sold as a cheaper alternative to traditional Medicare. In reality, these private plansschemes are bleeding taxpayers for $76 billion more in 2026 than traditional Medicare would cost for comparable enrollees.  A thorough analysis by MedPage — drawing from data provided by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) — highlights MA’s broken promises. 

This year's Medicare open enrollment season, which began on October 15, comes at a concerning time for the program. There are

Medicare beneficiaries will be paying a higher premium for Part B insurance in 2025. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Medicare premiums have been rising every year for decades now. The 2025 increase, though, is receiving an unusual amount of attention, probably because of the media’s hyper-focus on inflation in general.