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Obama Strengthens Medicare with $716 Billion Savings and ACA

Last updated on 2014.05.01

....Romney Vows to Raise Seniors' Costs, Hasten Medicare's Demise

In one of the most devious bits of campaign judo on the health care debate, Republicans try to deflect criticism of their intent to voucherize, privatize, and pulverize Medicare by shouting that President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act cut hundreds of billions from Medicare. Mitt Romney places the "cuts" at $716 billion and vows to restore that funding by repealing the ACA.

We've had this discussion in the Madville Times comment section: saying President Obama cut Medicare benefits is one of the biggest lies out there. The ACA doesn't touch benefits for senior citizens; it reduces reimbursements for private insurers (who didn't live up to their promises of holding down costs by competing for seniors' business under Medicare Advantage) and hospitals, plus a basket of other program savings.

So who's really threatening to raise Medicare recipients' costs and hasten the program's insolvency? Mitt Romney, whose plan one analyst calls "puzzling and bogus":

The 2010 health care law cut Medicare reimbursements to hospitals and insurers, not benefits for older Americans, by that amount over the coming decade. But repealing the savings, policy analysts say, would hasten the insolvency of Medicare by eight years -- to 2016, the final year of the next presidential term, from 2024.

While Republicans have raised legitimate questions about the long-term feasibility of the reimbursement cuts, analysts say, to restore them in the short term would immediately add hundreds of dollars a year to out-of-pocket Medicare expenses for beneficiaries. That would violate Romney's vow that neither current beneficiaries nor Americans within 10 years of eligibility would be affected by his proposal to shift Medicare to a voucherlike system in which recipients are given a lump sum to buy coverage from competing insurers.

For those reasons, Henry Aaron, an economist and a longtime health policy analyst at the Brookings Institution and the Institute of Medicine, called Romney's vow to repeal the savings "both puzzling and bogus at the same time" [Jackie Calmes, "Experts See Higher Co-pays If Romney Restored Medicare Savings," New York Times via San Jose Mercury, August 21, 2012].

President Obama's $716 billion dollars in savings over ten years help Medicare in two ways. Most obviously, he spends less to deliver the same benefits and extends Medicare's viability, helping us ride out that much more of the baby-boomer bubble and giving us more time to come up with solutions that guarantee health security for future generations of retirees.

In the longer term, we use those Medicare savings to fund the Affordable Care Act. The ACA insures more people and covers more preventive and primary care. More people get health care before their maladies get really bad. When those people reach Medicare age, they're lugging around fewer health problems. Healthier Medicare recipients mean lower Medicare expenses.

Mitt Romney tears those two advantage up, not because he doesn't like the program (remember: ObamaCare is RomneyCare!) but because Barack Obama did it, and all his obsessive screaming Tea Party base cares about is repealing ObamaCare. Repealing President Obama's Medicare-saving savings makes no policy sense:

"One can only wonder what's going on inside their headquarters in Boston and among their policy people," said John McDonough, the director of the Center for Public Health Leadership at Harvard. "But there are only two explanations: Either they don't understand how the program works, which is hard to imagine, or there is some deliberate misrepresentation here because they know how politically potent this charge is" [Calmes, 2012.08.21].

Romney's plan for Medicare resembles his energy plan: we can't come up with a better plan, so let's burn up what we have as fast as possible! Where the Romney-Ryan GOP throws up its hands in surrender and says there's no way we can make Medicare work for folks under 55, President Obama makes hard choices and says Yes We Can keep Medicare going for future generations.

7 Comments

  1. Owen Reitzel 2012.08.25

    Somebody should show this to Noem. She made the same lie during the Dakotafest debate and I just about came out of my chair.
    I tried to explain it to somebody last night and it was like they didn't even hear. The hate for Obama is incredible.

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.08.25

    Thanks for catching that, Owen! It doesn't surprise me: the Medicare "cuts" are the only possible defense Noem can recite against her party's plan to completely eliminate Medicare.

  3. G-Man 2012.08.25

    Owen, this is typical Noem. She narrowly, but, successfully used her anti-stimulus argument against Stephanie in the 2010 Campaign. It did not matter to the slim majority that Noem was happy to acknowledge she helped to balance the state budget while in the legislature using the stimulus that Stephanie supported in Congress. Kristi, like ol' Mittens, is a walking and talking contradiction. The sad thing is that you are correct in the "hatred" out there. It has unfortunately blinded just enought voters in the Middle Class to support their own demise by voting against their interests for these Post Modern clowns.

  4. Nick Nemec 2012.08.25

    Not only did Noem use the "stealing $716B" from Medicare line during the DakotaFest debate she also revived the death panel talk claiming a 17 person panel will make all the decisions on health care for senior citizens.

  5. Donald Pay 2012.08.25

    What you see are people with any knowledge base leaving the Republican Party in droves to the know-nothings and special interests. People who vote for Noem and Romney don't really care about facts. Romney has shown that the way to win the Republican nomination is to lie repeatedly and without shame. The more lies the Republicans tell with a straight face the more they can get away with. People would rather hear lies, than the truth. Finding the truth is inconvenient, and requires more than a little time and effort. Romney gives them what they want---fascism for free.

  6. G-Man 2012.08.25

    Donald, that may very well be true. Sad, but, the majority gets what the majority wants even when they find out later they did not want what they were mislead to want.

  7. Owen Reitzel 2012.08.25

    G-man I couldn't agree with you more. Even when you show them the facts they ignore them. Frustrating

    Nick I had forgotten about that. Noem did mention the death panels. Same tired right-wing argument

Comments are closed.