Conservative budget plan keeps healthcare reform's Medicare cuts

Like the House GOP budget that lawmakers will vote on next week, a conservative plan unveiled Thursday includes about $500 billion in Medicare cuts Democrats made in last year's healthcare reform law.

Republicans over the past year widely panned the Medicare reimbursement cuts, which the Democrats enacted to help cover the cost of expanding coverage to 32 million new individuals.

The GOP proposal unveiled on Tuesday and a supplemental plan offered up by the 176-member Republican Study Committee (RSC) Thursday afternoon both keep the Medicare cuts in place while calling for the repeal of most of the law.

Democrats have criticized Republicans over the past week for embracing healthcare reform’s Medicare cuts after campaigning against them in last year’s midterm elections.

“They've taken those savings — the same ones that they’ve criticized — in their plan," said Budget Committee ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Tuesday. "The healthcare reforms enacted in the Affordable Care Act, which they say they're repealing, they're not repealing at all."

Republicans, defending the cuts, say they're putting $500 billion back into the Medicare program.

“Unlike the Democrats, who use that to build new programs, we use that to sustain where we are with regard to Medicare,” said Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), chairman of the RSC’s budget and spending task force.

“We only count it once,” he added.

Hospital groups, which agreed to $155 billion in Medicare cuts over a decade in exchange for a lower rate of uninsured individuals, slammed Republicans for keeping the cuts while ditching the rest of healthcare reform.

"The two were coupled in healthcare reform,” American Hospital Association President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock told The Hill on Tuesday. “It's unacceptable if just the cuts stand."