DEATH PANELS & $716 BILLION FROM MEDICARE

I've never heard it discussed, but I think that Democrats are well concerned about making proposals to cut Medicare.  After all the Democrats had proposed in Section 123 of bill HR 3200 that would have paid physicians for counseling patients about living will, advances directives, and end-of -life care options.  Sarah Palin coined the phrase "death panels" to describe this and said that these panels would judge just how much health care you deserved.  Of those that knew about the claim, 30% said they thought it was true (about 255 of Americans).*  The provision about physicians counseling was removed from the final bill though end-of-life provisions, in particular, are a major expense in Medicare, but political hysteria had set in.  You should read the entire Wikipedia report but just to quote one claim "Rep Virginia Foxx (R-NC) charged that the proposal would 'put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.'"

There is an Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) that will force cuts in Medicare if inflation in Medicare costs exceeds a certain number.**  These cuts specifically cannot reduce benefits or ration health care (Section 3403 of the health care law), but deal with things like Medicare Advantage costs, physician's reimbursement, hospital reimbursements.  Congress can rescind these cuts, but then must find the savings elsewhere.  This Board has been demagogued too.  Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney claimed that, "In order to bring health care costs down, we don't need to have `15 people telling us what kinds of treatments we should have."  But Romney's falsehood is relatively mild compared to that by others

 IPAB is a change from where a previous panel called MedPac advised the congress on cuts to medical costs, which congress duly ignored.  The panel consists of 15 members appointed by the President subject to Senate confirmation.  It is specified that the president must consult with the leaders of the Senate and House majorities and minorities for the appointment of 3 members each or 12 members total.  The other three members are the Head of HHS, and two health Administrators as non-voting members.  Though these members are not elected (thank heavens for that), they have more scrutiny than Department Secretaries, it seems to me.

Then there is the demogoging the $716 billion in cuts from Medicare, a sum identical to the cuts Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).  These cuts are expected to extend the life of Medicare for 8 years.  Now in Obamacare, these cuts are used elsewhere to do things like close the "donut hole" in Medicare D, and one might want to use the cuts for other purposes like reducing the Federal deficit, but that was not what was claimed.  It was claimed by various Republicans that the cuts were to reduce benefits to Medicare beneficiaries.  In fact, 30.2% of the cuts involve Medicare Advantage (Medicare-C) that cost 17% more than Medicare-B (and I feel Advantage should be eliminated entirely), 34.8% were to reduce hospital costs (and hospitals agreed to this because of an expected increase in patients under Obamacare), and 35 % for everything else (e.g. insurance cuts, home care provider cuts, uninsured patient cuts to hospitals, etc., about a dozen in all).***  Republicans implied or claimed that this sum would be taken from Medicare benefits, though such was not the case.  Republican candidate for President even claimed he would restore the cuts.

The funny thing is that all these were cuts were made by people that actually want to destroy Medicare.  Paul Ryan wanted to eliminate Medicare in favor of vouchers to people to seek medical insurance.  Besides he still wants to eliminate $716 billion from Medicare.****  But is it any wonder that Democrats are wary of mentioning specific cuts to Medicare?

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_panel
** http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/oct/04/mitt-romney/romney-says-ipab-board-can-tell-people-ultimately-/
*** http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/14/romneys-right-obamacare-cuts-medicare-by-716-billion-heres-how/
**** http://reason.com/blog/2012/12/03/republicans-likely-to-stick-with-medicar