Fix Health Care Policy

Medicare Advantage Survives—for Now

Newscom

There seems to be much confusion surrounding the recent drama of Medicare Advantage’s (MA) 2014 payment rate. Here’s what happened:

In February, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its advance notice of estimates of the national per capita Medicare Advantage (MA) growth percentage, which is a key factor in determining the MA payment rate for 2014. The notice revealed that MA payment rates were set to decrease by 2.2 percent. The CMS had until April 1 to finalize the rate.

This 2.2 percent reduction would have been on top of the MA reductions included in Obamacare ($156 billion over 10 years) and Obamacare’s new annual fee on health insurers, often referred to as the “premium tax” (costing $101.7 billion over 10 years), which will also hit MA plans.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: annual fee, Medicare Advantage, ObamaCare, payment rates

Medicare Roundup 10/12: Setting the Record Straight

In recent weeks, liberal politicians, editorialists, and policy analysts have vigorously attacked reform of Medicare based on a defined contribution financing. In fact, this approach to reforming Medicare has a long bipartisan tradition, going back to the 1980s and Representatives Richard Gephardt (D–MO) and David Stockman (R–MI). In fact, much of this criticism is distorted, misleading, or just plain wrong.

Here are some articles that set the record straight:

Commentary:

Obama’s Medicare Cuts Will Affect Benefits (Bob Moffit)

National Review Online, 10/12/12

“Question: If you cut funding for benefits, will you then affect persons dependent upon those benefits? Of course you will. Financing directly affects the quantity and quality of the benefits available to the beneficiaries.”

Vice Presidential Debate: True/False Quiz on Medicare (Alyene Senger)

The Heritage Foundation, 10/12/12

“During the debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Representative Paul Ryan, several claims were made about Medicare. Some of these were true, others false.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: beneficiaries, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, myths, premium support, truth

SLIDESHOW: Obamacare’s Impact—in Pictures

As health care becomes an increasingly debated topic, it is critically important for every American to understand the impact of Obamacare. The Heritage Foundation’s newly updated “Obamacare in Pictures: Visualizing the Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” shows through charts and graphs Obamacare’s far-reaching negative effects on all Americans. (continues below slideshow)

 Obamacare in Pictures: Visualizing the Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from The Heritage Foundation

Here are a few examples of what the chart series depicts:

• Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare. Obamacare cut $716 billion out of the Medicare program to pay for new spending in Obamacare. These cuts come from Medicare Advantage, hospice services, nursing homes, and more. Taking this money out of Medicare will have serious implications on seniors’ ability to access care. For instance, the Medicare Actuary predicts that by 2017, 50 percent of the seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage—7.4 million—will have to leave their private plans and move into traditional Medicare—which offers less generous benefits, no cap on catastrophic costs, and separate plans for drug coverage.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: Affordable Care Act, impact, Medicare Advantage, Medicare cuts, Obamacare in Pictures, slideshow

Medicare and Seniors: Answering the $6,400 Question

Opponents to Medicare reform have been making plenty of erroneous claims about Medicare premium support lately, one of the worst being that Representative Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) premium-support model, co-authored by Senator Ron Wyden (D–OR), would cost future seniors an extra $6,400 a year. This claim is simply false.

Buried beneath the wild and scary allegations are the facts, which Heritage expert Rea Hederman details in his recent paper “Why Medicare Premium Support Would Not Cost Future Beneficiaries $6,400 More.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: $6400 extra, beneficiaries, erroneous claims, Medicare Advantage, myths, premium support, reform

Medicare Roundup 10/5: Setting the Record Straight

In recent weeks, liberal politicians, editorialists, and policy analysts have vigorously attacked reform of Medicare based on defined-contribution financing. In fact, this approach to reforming Medicare has a long bipartisan tradition, going back to the 1980s and Representatives Richard Gephardt (D–MO) and David Stockman (R–MI). Much of this criticism is distorted, misleading, or just plain wrong.

Here are some articles that set the record straight:

Read the full list on The Foundry…

Tags: Medicare, Medicare Advantage, misleading, myths, premium support

Two Liberal Whoppers on Medicare

A debate that has been fought largely over the airwaves is about to go head-to-head. Medicare reform is a huge part of that debate, and the left—bolstered by the media—has been promoting two huge falsehoods on the issue.

Several proposals from conservatives and liberals for Medicare reform, including The Heritage Foundation’s Saving the American Dream proposal, are based on a financing model called “premium support.” What that means: Medicare has a premium cost, just as other health insurance does. When the government makes a contribution (sometimes referred to as a “defined contribution”) toward paying your premium, that is called premium support. The difference with reform is that the government would no longer dictate to seniors which Medicare plan they would have to use. The government would still support the premium, but the seniors would have the option to choose from a variety of plans tailored to their needs, including traditional Medicare.

The concept is already working in several areas of Medicare, including Medicare Advantage plans and the prescription drug benefit program. Program savings in the drug program have been spectacular, and in Medicare Advantage and the drug program premiums have been stable. Patient satisfaction is very high in both programs.

But two whoppers are still circulating—let’s put them to rest once and for all.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: cost savings, greater competition, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, myths, premium support, prescription drug benefit program, whoppers

Sebelius Misleads the Public on Medicare Advantage

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius has misled the American public again.

HHS just announced that enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) is projected to increase by 11 percent next year. That’s good news. But the Secretary goes terribly wrong when she credits the increase to Obamacare, stating, “Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug programs have been strengthened and continue to improve for beneficiaries.”

As Heritage has pointed out before, Obamacare severely damages MA. The law is projected to cut $156 billion from the program between 2013 and 2022. Because of these cuts, the Medicare actuary predicts that enrollment in MA will decrease 50 percent by 2017. For those who remain in MA, Heritage estimates, “By 2017, Medicare beneficiaries who would have enrolled in Medicare Advantage under prior law will lose an average of $1,841 due to the MA changes alone and $3,714 when the effects of the entire bill…are considered.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, MA, Medicare Advantage, misleading public, ObamaCare

Medicare Reform Debate: What Really Works in Health Care Competition

Recently, economist Paul Krugman derided the premium support plan to reform Medicare:

Still, wouldn’t private insurers reduce costs through the magic of the marketplace? No. All, and I mean all, the evidence says that public systems like Medicare and Medicaid, which have less bureaucracy than private insurers (if you can’t believe this, you’ve never had to deal with an insurance company) and greater bargaining power, are better than the private sector at controlling costs.

Of course, Medicare has been shown to be “efficient” enough to lose more money to fraud than private insurance. Peter Suderman of Reason magazine recently pointed out a number of studies suggesting that the private sector can effectively control costs in health care. One notable study recognizes that private plans do have the potential to control costs better than the government, as illustrated by Medicare Advantage’s success in constraining costs compared to traditional Medicare.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: controlling costs, defined contribution, guaranteed benefits, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, more competition, premium support, private plans

How Obamacare Robs Medicare and Hurts Seniors

The rhetorical Medicare wars have heated up this week, after President Obama declared in his Saturday radio address that his proposed reforms “won’t touch your guaranteed Medicare benefits. Not by a single dime.”

This is incorrect. Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and uses these “savings” from Medicare to fund other entitlement expansions mandated by Obamacare. Medicare becomes a cash cow for Obamacare, and the Medicare “savings” from payment cuts are not put back into making Medicare solvent. Such massive payment cuts do impact Medicare benefits, as well as seniors’ access to those benefits.

Heritage’s Alyene Senger explains how this hurts America’s seniors:

The impact of these cuts will be detrimental to seniors’ access to care. The Medicare trustees 2012 report concludes that these lower Medicare payment rates will cause an estimated 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies to operate at a loss by 2019, 25 percent to operate at a loss in 2030, and 40 percent by 2050. Operating at a loss means these facilities are likely to cut back their services to Medicare patients or close their doors, making it more difficult for seniors to access these services.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: $716 billion cuts, CBO, entitlement expansion, insolvent, Medicare Advantage, ObamaCare, repeal the law

Obamacare Robs Medicare of $716 Billion to Fund Itself

Last week, a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report updated the amount of money Obamacare robs out of Medicare from $500 billion to a whopping $716 billion between 2013 and 2022.

According to the CBO, the payment cuts in Medicare include:

• A $260 billion payment cut for hospital services.
• A $39 billion payment cut for skilled nursing services.
• A $17 billion payment cut for hospice services.
• A $66 billion payment cut for home health services.
• A $33 billion payment cut for all other services.
• A $156 billion cut in payment rates in Medicare Advantage (MA); $156 billion is before considering interactions with other provisions. The House Ways and Means Committee was able to include interactions with other provisions, estimating the cuts to MA to be even higher, coming in at $308 billion.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: $500 billion cuts, Congressional Budget Office, hospital services, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, ObamaCare, rob