Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) led Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and a bipartisan group of 57 Senators in a letter expressing their continued support of the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. Last year, Senator Cortez Masto led a bipartisan letter urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to strengthen MA oversight, and led bipartisan legislation to help lawmakers conduct oversight of federal dollars going to MA plans, assess quality of care, and protect health care access for America’s seniors.
Each year, CMS releases payment and policy updates to the MA program. The Senators’ letter urges the administration to ensure stability for the MA program, move forward with ongoing reforms to address predatory marketing practices, and encourage plan performance transparency to help consumers better assess value in the MA program.
“We write to express our bipartisan support for the Medicare Advantage program and the health care coverage it provides to over 32 million seniors and individuals with disabilities,” the senators wrote. “We appreciate your ongoing commitment to ensuring that the Medicare Advantage program meets the health care needs of all beneficiaries while improving the quality and long-term stability of the Medicare program…As the Administration considers updates for plan year 2025, we request that you ensure payment and policy stability for the Medicare Advantage program, to protect and strengthen this critical choice for current and future Medicare beneficiaries.”
“Looking to the future, we believe that every American eligible for Medicare should receive clear, accurate, and timely information about the cost and quality of their coverage options. We look forward to working with you to combat predatory and deceptive marketing practices, improve the accuracy of provider directories, and increase transparency of plan performance to help consumers and taxpayers better assess value,” the senators continued.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
Senator Cortez Masto is a leader in the Senate in ensuring older Nevadans can access quality, affordable health care. She has cosponsored legislation to make health care more affordable by giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, capping drug costs, and limiting egregious price hikes by drug manufacturers. Her bipartisan legislation to combat Alzheimer’s disease was signed into law and she is working across the aisle to extend Medicare enrollees’ access to telehealth services no matter where they reside.
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