hotair.com Polls show Americans are angry — and rightly so — at accelerating medical bills. Meanwhile, the insurers and hospitals keep raking in record profits.
UnitedHealthcare just reported jumbo profits so far in 2026, and in 2025 they recorded revenues of more than $400 billion. They are raking in profits from the $1.9 trillion in federal healthcare programs.
Two of the largest “nonprofit” hospital chains, Kaiser Permanente and HCA Healthcare, recorded nearly $200 billion in assets at the end 2024. As Rep. Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, put it: “Hospitals are charging an insane amount. Hospital prices have skyrocketed 300% in just over two decades — more than any other sector of our economy.”
A major driver of costs is the fraudulent claims paid out by the government to health insurers and hospitals. Much of the scam billings are charged to the half-trillion-dollar Medicare Advantage program.
Here’s one way they get away with it.
Medicare payments are based on a patient’s risk factors or diagnosed conditions — not payments for actual healthcare services. Medicare Advantage enrollees are healthier on average than traditional Medicare beneficiaries, yet insurers consistently inflate patient risk scores so they can bilk more money from Uncle Sam.
This scheme is known as “upcoding.” By exaggerating the patients’ health problems, insurers collect larger payments from government without providing additional healthcare. It’s the healthcare equivalent of a driver filing an insurance claim for a fender-bender and seeking reimbursement for much more than the repairs actually cost.
The Medicare Advantage program is supposed to be a free-market supplement to Medicare. But the rules are written as if to fatten the wallets of the hospital and insurance giants — while the taxpayers and employers eat the costs.
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