A House repugican hearing on the harmful impact of Obamacare on Medicare Advantage completely backfired when the expert witnesses that repugicans invited disagreed with them.
Subcommittee on Health Chairman Kevin Brady
(r-TX) set the stage for gloom and doom, “The future for Medicare
Advantage may look grim. The questionable $8.3 billion quality bonus
payment demonstration program used to mask the ACA cuts is coming to an
end…This leaves the looming threat that Medicare Advantage plan rates
could again include the broken physician reimbursement formula, unless
we finally and permanently fix the way Medicare pays physicians. Instead
of improving the situation, CMS’s regulatory actions are threatening
plans through potential termination and limiting their ability to
innovate.”
The repugicans quickly crashed and burned when their own witnesses disagreed with them.
Chris Wing of SCAN Health Plan said, “The MA program
continues to grow in popularity. It gives seniors and other eligible
individuals what they want: choice, coordination of care, affordability.
It has begun to put the incentives in place for constant quality
improvement by rewarding collaboration between providers and plans.
Congress should have a strong interest in seeing the continued
advancement of Medicare Advantage.”
Joe Baker of the Medicare Rights Center testified,
“Many predicted that ACA changes to MA payment methods would lead to
widespread disruption of the MA market. However, there is little
evidence that this has occurred. In fact, it is important to note that
MA enrollment is at an all-time high, with nearly 16 million
beneficiaries now enrolled in an MA plan, representing a steadily
growing percentage of beneficiaries. In addition, premium costs, benefit
levels, and the availability of MA plans remain relatively stable across the country.”
Robert Book of Health Systems Innovation Network told the committee, “Since its inception, Medicare Advantage has proved to be one of the most popular and successful components of Medicare, with enrollment steadily increasing over time.”
The expert testimony of the witnesses that the repugicans invited was that Medicare Advantage enrollment is at an all
time high. The myth that the ACA is going to kill Medicare is one of the
favorite standards used by repugicans to scare seniors out of
supporting Obamacare.
The repugicans repeatedly called Obamacare
a raid on Medicare despite the fact that their own experts, who were
sitting right in front of them, disagreed. The scene was surreal. The repugicans kept discussing how Obamacare is destroying Medicare while ignoring the facts that were being presented to them at their own hearing.
The hearing itself was another waste of time and money as House repugicans continue to try to convince the American people that affordable access to healthcare is a bad thing.
The repugicans lost the battle and the war, but they are never going to stop lying about Obamacare.
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