Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Tea-Publicans are taking a beating from constituents back home for voting for the GOP budget plan that includes Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare as we know it. So the right-wing noise machine has settled upon a post-vote plan to return to their "Medi-Scare" line of attack used successfully to confuse voters in the mid-term elections, claiming Democrats "cut" $500 billion from Medicare as part of the Affordable Care Act. "Democrats did it too!" (No Democrat has voted to privatize Medicare and to end Medicare as we know it).
What the right-wing noise machine will not tell you is that Rep. Ryan's plan retains this $500 billion in reductions under the Affordable Care Act, while increasing out-of-pocket costs for seniors. Tea-Publicans are simultaneously trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but for the $500 billion in reductions to Medicare which Rep. Ryan retains in his plan.
Since all but four Tea-Publicans in the House and all but five Tea-Publicans in the Senate just voted for the GOP budget, they just voted in favor of the very thing that they are using in their post-vote talking points to attack Democrats, in another attempt to confuse voters with a false equivalency. The Affordable Care Act strengthened Medicare and extended its fiscal soundness. RyanCare would end Medicare as we know it, and cost seniors more out-of-pocket money. Right-Wing Media Attack Obama Over Medicare "Cuts" As They Praise Ryan Plan, Which Includes Same "Cuts":
FactCheck: Cost-Saving Provisions Are "Not A Slashing Of The Current Medicare Budget Or Benefits." According to FactCheck.org:
Whatever you want to call them, it's a $500 billion reduction in the growth of future spending over 10 years, not a slashing of the current Medicare budget or benefits. It's true that those who get their coverage through Medicare Advantage's private plans (about 22 percent of Medicare enrollees) would see fewer add-on benefits; the bill aims to reduce the heftier payments made by the government to Medicare Advantage plans, compared with regular fee-for-service Medicare. The Democrats' bill also boosts certain benefits: It makes preventive care free and closes the "doughnut hole," a current gap in prescription drug coverage for seniors. [FactCheck.org, 3/19/10]
PolitiFact: Reductions "Aimed At Eliminating Parts Of The Medicare Program Seen As Ineffective Or Wasteful." From PolitiFact.com:
Under the act, Congress voted to reduce $500 billion in projected Medicare spending over the next 10 years, not in one substantial chunk. The reductions are aimed at eliminating parts of the Medicare program seen as ineffective or wasteful. For example, the plan phases out payments to the Medicare Advantage program, an optional program set up under the George W. Bush administration, where seniors could opt to enroll in a private insurance program and the federal government would subsidize a portion of their premium. [PolitiFact.com, 5/10/11]
PolitiFact: CBO Says "Spending For Medicare Will Continue To Increase Over The Next Decade." From PolitiFact.com:
On the surface, it may seem that lawmakers voted to cut Medicare spending under the new health law, but they instead cut the rate of growth. As a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office notes, the amount of spending for Medicare will continue to increase over the next decade, from $499 billion in 2009 to $929 billion in 2020. [PolitiFact.com, 5/10/11]
PolitiFact: "Experts Say The Quality Of Care Should Not Be Shortchanged." From PolitiFact:
[E]ven though $500 billion in spending is being reduced, health care experts say the quality of care should not be shortchanged.
"Some (reforms) increase Medicare spending to improve benefits and coverage," said Tricia Neuman, vice president and director of the Medicare Policy Project at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, in a video on the foundation's website.
"Other provisions reduce the growth in Medicare spending to help the program operate more efficiently and help fund coverage expansions to the uninsured in the underlying health reform legislation," Neuman said. "Other provisions are designed to improve the delivery of care and quality of care." [PolitiFact.com, 5/10/11]
New England Journal Of Medicine: Affordable Care Act Eliminates "Substantial Overpayments" To Medicare Advantage Plans. From an article by Robert A. Berenson in The New England Journal of Medicine:
[T]he currently projected savings come from two main sources: reduced payments to private Medicare Advantage plans and reduced payment updates for hospitals and most other providers. A phased elimination of the substantial overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans, which now enroll nearly 25% of Medicare beneficiaries, will produce an estimated $132 billion in savings over 10 years.
[…]
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has been calling for such fee reductions for years, to keep Medicare Advantage from undermining traditional Medicare.
The ACA also produces nearly $200 billion in savings by assuming that providers can improve their productivity as firms in other industries have done. On the basis of this presumed improvement, the law reduces Medicare's annual "market basket" updates for most types of providers — a provision that has generated controversy. [The New England Journal of Medicine, 7/8/10]
FactCheck: Changes To Medicare Advantage Come With Extra Benefits For All Medicare Enrollees. According to FactCheck.org:
The CBO has estimated that the move would change the value of the extra benefits Medicare Advantage participants get, but they would not receive fewer benefits than the rest of seniors who aren't on the Advantage plans. The bill does add some extras for Medicare beneficiaries, eliminating copays and deductibles for preventive services, for example. [FactCheck.org, 12/2/09]
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PolitiFact: "Ryan's Plan … Intends To Keep The $500 Billion In Reductions." From PolitiFact.com:
Ryan's plan, as noted in this news article from the Associated Press, also intends to keep the $500 billion in reductions that Republicans have criticized Democrats for approving under the Obama plan.
[…]
The vote taken by Congress was not to cut Medicare but to reduce the rate of growth by $500 billion by targeting inefficiencies in the program. That's a cost-reduction plan that Ryan himself kept intact in his own budget proposal. [PolitiFact.com, 5/10/11]
* * *
CBPP: CBO Found That Typical Medicare Beneficiary's "Annual Out-Of-Pocket Costs Would More Than Double." From the CBPP report:
Since the Ryan proposal would reduce the federal government's contribution for beneficiaries' health care costs even as it caused total costs to increase, beneficiaries' out-of-pocket spending would rise dramatically.
[…]
CBO also finds that this beneficiary's annual out-of-pocket costs would more than double – from $6,150 to $12,500. In later years, as the value of the voucher eroded, the increase in out-of-pocket costs would be even greater.
The report included this graph showing the projected increase in seniors' health care costs under Ryan's plan:
[CBPP, 4/7/11, emphasis in the original]
UPDATE: Steve Benen explains at the Political Animal – A swing and a miss from Boehner on Medicare:
First, Dems didn’t really “cut” Medicare, so much as they eliminated a wasteful and unnecessary giveaway to insurance companies. This didn’t undermine the program, it did the opposite, extending the health of Medicare financing for nearly another decade.
Second, Boehner’s argument is self-defeating since the House Republican budget plan keeps those alleged cuts in place — and the GOP caucus just endorsed the House Republican budget plan. In other words, the Speaker said yesterday that “only people” who’ve cut Medicare are Dems through the Affordable Care Act, but Boehner and his fellow Republicans voted to keep those same cuts in place.
Third, Boehner would prefer not to look back on his own record, but over the last 20 years, he personally has voted to cut more than $800 billion from Medicare. (Sorry, Mr. Speaker, Google still exists, and your record hasn’t disappeared down a memory hole.)
And finally, Boehner and his party want to end Medicare altogether. Why start a fight over which side of the aisle loves the program more when one party wants to privatize the program away?
Republicans created quite a mess for themselves and now appear to be flailing…
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