RALPH NADER: Well, the Republicans opposed Social Security and Medicare from the get-go, and they’ve always been preying on it, trying to corporatize it, trying to get its funds invested in the stock market and Wall Street. And so it’s nothing new. Senator Scott, who in his prior work headed a giant hospital corporation that was criminally fined, and by the federal government, has no shame about that. He has proposed that it be — Social Security and Medicare be sunsetted every five years, among other health and safety laws, in a report he put out as the chairman of the Senate Republican reelection committee last year. So, there’s no ambiguity about that.
But the Democrats are very defensive. For example, the real problem with Medicare, it’s being corporatized, with the assistance of the AFL and AARP. It’s called Medicare Advantage. We call it “Medicare Disadvantage.” So, over half now of the elderly beneficiaries under Medicare are under corporations’ health plan, like UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna and others. That’s the problem. They’re burrowing under Medicare and corporatizing it, while the Democrats are accusing Republicans of going after Medicare.
— source democracynow.org | Feb 10, 2023