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Elizabeth Warren: Biden Nominee for Medicare Trustee Has 'Shocking' Ties to Medicare Advantage Firm [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-30  

Kudos to commondreams.org (which notes after all of its stories “Feel Free to Republish and Share Widely”) for publishing this story. Original story (with the 10-minute video of Warren’s questioning, in case the one below doesn’t work) is here:

www.commondreams.org/…

A few tidbits:

"Not a single other trustee has ever received compensation from an insurance company while acting as a Medicare trustee," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Warren had to press the Biden nominee, Demetrious Kouzoukas, repeatedly to get him to say how much money he receives for being on the board of Clover Health; he finally admitted that in the last year, he received $100,000 from Clover. She pressed him repeatedly to say whether or not he would continue to serve on the board of Clover Health if he was confirmed as a Medicare trustee. After he dodged this question several times, she said that she would take that as a yes, that he would continue to serve with Clover Health, noting that that position legally obligates him to look out for the best interests of that company. She asked him repeatedly whether if the Medicare Advantage industry fraud is looked into and cracked down on, whether that would hurt Clover Health or not; Kouzoukas also would not answer directly, despite Warren’s repeated attempts to get a yes or no.

"You know, Mr. Kouzoukas, I think you think you're gonna get away with this by just not answering the question and not having any clip that admits how much money you're taking from a private insurance company that makes its money through Medicare Advantage, at the same moment that you're trying to take a public role that will influence whether we focus on the fraud in Medicare Advantage, or whether we turn a blind eye to it," Warren said.

"Let's be clear," the senator added. "If Mr. Kouzoukas ignores the fraud, he helps Clover. If he focuses on the fraud, he hurts Clover. The conflict of interest here is so big and so pervasive that there is no action that Mr. Kouzoukas can take that doesn't either help or hurt Clover, the company that pays him $100,000 a year to sit on its board and watch out for the company."

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Kouzoukas previously worked in Health and Human Services (HHS) under tfg. If Biden is interested in helping seniors and regular Americans (for example, with getting Medicare to negotiate prices with Big Pharma), then why is he appointing someone with such an obvious conflict of interest to an industry that has (as Warren points out in her questioning) overcharged Medicare about 75 billion dollars?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/30/2196514/-Elizabeth-Warren-Biden-Nominee-for-Medicare-Trustee-Has-Shocking-Ties-to-Medicare-Advantage-Firm

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