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A group closely aligned with House Republican leadership is spending over $2 million to accuse President Biden of being the one who truly wants to cut Medicare, Axios has learned. It's some of the earliest spending of the 2024 election cycle and signals that Republicans plan to go on offense, rather than just defend against Biden's claims that the GOP wants to slice into Medicare and Social Security. (Solender and Knight, 3/2)

Health insurers are tussling with the Biden administration over a proposal that could curtail federal payments for some private Medicare plans, a high-stakes issue for the industry because the business represents a growth engine. In a continuing effort that included a Super Bowl ad, insurers and their allies argue that the administration plans a payment cut next year for the popular health plans, which are known as Medicare Advantage. The tagline for the commercial, from the industry-backed Better Medicare Alliance, was “Tell the White House: Don’t cut Medicare Advantage.” The group has also rallied Medicare Advantage enrollees to call members of Congress, and it has set up a site at dontcutmedicareadvantage.com. (Mathews, 3/2)

A new approach to paying doctors and hospitals — originally billed as a way to bolster traditional Medicare — might be speeding the public health insurance program’s privatization. Medicare Advantage typically gets credited, or blamed, for moving beneficiaries into a system run by private health insurers. The program has grown rapidly since its inception; nearly half of people on Medicare are now in a private plan. But there may be another wave of privatization coming. (Wilkerson, 3/3)

Sen Joe Manchin, D-WVa, repeated his support Thursday to keep Social Security and Medicare intact amid worries about its long term solvency but said there might be a “better program” to consider for future beneficiaries. The West Virginia Democrat — and key Senate swing vote — indicated his opposition to Social Security and Medicare cuts. But in an interview on FOX News on Thursday, he also didn’t close the door on a finding a different way to help future beneficiaries. (Elbeshbishi, 3/2)

Payers saw their Medicare Advantage margins revert back to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, yet those margins were still double those seen in other markets, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. By the end of 2021, gross margins per enrollee had returned to pre-pandemic levels in the Medicare Advantage market, while gross margins in the individual and group markets were lower and Medicaid margins were higher, the data showed. (Lagasse, 3/2)