Thirteen members of the Senate have teamed up to try to take the "cut my funding" sign off the back of Medicare Advantage program funding.
The initial list of senators trying to shield Medicare Advantage against aggressive budget-cutting includes five Republicans, seven Democrats and an independent who typically votes with the Democrats.
The Medicare Advantage program gives private organizations a chance to use a combination of government funding and enrollee premiums to provide an alternative to traditional Medicare coverage. About 28 million of the 63 million Medicare enrollees have Medicare Advantage plan coverage.
Critics say the government spends about 3% more on Medicare Advantage enrollees than on traditional Medicare program enrollees. One group says an easy way for Congress to free up $200 billion would be to cut Medicare spending on drugs, payments to providers, and payments to Medicare Advantage plans.
Supporters say the Medicare Advantage program provides richer, better-coordinated coverage, with much lower out-of-pocket costs for enrollees who may, on average, face more health and economic obstacles than typical enrollees in the traditional Medicare program.
The Names
The Republicans on the list are Shelley Moore-Capito, of West Virginia; Deb Fischer, of Nebraska; Marco Rubio, of Florida; Tim Scott, of South Carolina; and Todd Young, of Indiana.
Two of the Democrats on the list are centrists who are seen as having the ability to block passage of the big Democratic infrastructure and social welfare package bills: Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona.
The other Democrats signing on are Mark Kelly, of Arizona; Gary Peters, of Michigan; Jacky Rosen, of Nevada; Jeanne Shaheen, of New Hampshire; and Jon Tester, of Montana.
