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GOP refocuses healthcare attacks on charges of 'rationing'
After arguing for weeks that Democrats don’t have a plan for Medicare, some congressional Republicans are switching gears and making the case that President Obama does have a plan — a horrifying plan that will deny seniors the care they need.
The new focus in Republicans’ attacks is the Independent Payments Advisory Board, or IPAB — a panel created under healthcare reform explicitly to make Medicare cuts.
The panel of experts, appointed by the president, will recommend cuts for various services. Those cuts will take place automatically unless Congress votes to block them and comes up with equivalent cost savings elsewhere in the federal budget.
A caucus of Republican doctors from both the House and Senate said Wednesday that the IPAB is a “rationing” board and will cut costs by denying seniors the care they need. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) charged that the board will make cuts from a “centrally planned economy perspective” by pushing seniors to the back of the line when they need an expensive procedure.
The GOP doctors repeatedly referred to the IPAB as Democrats’ “plan” at a news conference Wednesday. That’s a change in tone from the past few months, when the GOP charged that Obama was content to let Medicare spiral out of control.
As Democrats launched round after round of attacks on the House GOP’s plan to convert Medicare into a sort of voucher system, Republican members complained that Democrats were maligning a serious proposal without releasing their own plan to shore up Medicare’s finances.
Just last week, Republicans in both chambers wrote to Obama demanding a plan for Medicare.
Asked about the change, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) told The Hill that Democrats do have a plan, but that Congress should ax the IPAB before it can take effect. The Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Burgess is a member, is planning a hearing on the IPAB for next month.
Even some supporters of the overall healthcare law weren’t wild about the IPAB, especially in the House. It wasn’t included in the House-passed healthcare bill, and some Democrats complained about handing over power that otherwise would belong to Congress.
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) charged at Wednesday’s news conference that, thanks largely to the IPAB, the healthcare law has “already ended Medicare as we know it” — a play on the line that Democrats have used to attack the Republican proposal.
The GOP's plan would give seniors a range of choices for healthcare, he said, rather than putting "unelected bureaucrats" in charge of deciding what gets covered.
