Medicare

Her appearance was part of the Democrats' strategy to use the Republicans' budget proposal as political ammunition.

The president will travel the country and give local interviews to argue Republicans would end Medicare "as we know it."

The Republican budget the House passed on Friday holds great promise for Democrats because of voters' strong opposition to its Medicare reforms, according to a new poll for liberal organizations.

The poll, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for the Campaign for America's Future (CAF) and Democracy Corps, found that the GOP budget only garnered 48 percent support when it was described simply as a 10-year plan to cut spending $6.2 trillion "below the president's budget." When its effects on Medicare are more critically explained, however, support falls to 36 percent.

"The budget opens up a fundamental debate about values that could end up defining Republicans in the public mind and allowing Democrats to draw sharp differences and regain their standing on the economy and spending priorities and advocacy for the middle class," Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg and Robert Borosage of CAF said in a memo to supporters.

A top Democrat has joined party defectors in opposing President Obama on a key component of his healthcare reform.

Conservative Republicans on Friday encouraged their colleagues to support the Republican Study Committee (RSC) budget resolution for FY 2012, which would cut spending even more than the mainstream Republican proposal over the next decade and provide a solvency path for Medicare and Medicaid.

"The RSC budget … keeps tax rates low because we believe in economic growth, starts the process of saving Medicare and Social Security, protects national defense, which is after all is that area we are supposed to constitutionally spend taxpayer dollars," RSC Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said. "But most importantly, what the Republican Study Committee budget does is it balances."

The Obama administration has misused its regulatory authority to prevent planned cuts to seniors' health plans from taking effect one month before the 2012 election, Republican lawmakers alleged Thursday.

The lawmakers take issue with the Department of Health and Human Services' recent decision to spend $8.3 billion on a nationwide Medicare Advantage payment reform demonstration. The demonstration will increase payments to MA plans by 0.4 percent, they argue, helping offset the healthcare reform law's $200 billion in cuts to the plans that cover 25 percent of seniors on Medicare.

A Medicare agency official denied the charge, and said the payment reform demonstration program was authorized under the healthcare reform law. The pilot demonstration, the official said, aims to incentivize all Medicare Advantage plans to improve quality outcomes.

The allegation was made in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

President Obama on Wednesday rejected a Republican proposal to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid as he outlined a deficit reduction framework that aims to cut healthcare entitlement spending by $480 billion over 12 years.

The president is under pressure to tackle the long-term costs of the healthcare programs, which are expanding at an unsustainable rate and driving the growth of the deficit.

House Republicans last week proposed a budget that would largely privatize Medicare and turn Medicaid over to the states, but Obama rejected both approaches in a speech Wednesday afternoon.

The House Republican proposal “lowers the government’s healthcare bills by asking seniors and poor families to pay them instead,” Obama said. “Our approach lowers the government’s healthcare bills by reducing the cost of healthcare itself.”

President Obama finally threw his hat in the deficit-fighting ring Wednesday with a "40,000-foot" framework for cutting federal healthcare spending by $480 billion over 12 years.

Instead of the major overhaul unveiled last week by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the president favors building on cost-saving measures in last year's healthcare reform law by expanding the role of a payment advisory board that would recommend cuts to reimbursement rates if Medicare costs grow too fast. The president also wants to extend drug rebates to the 9 million or so low-income seniors and people with disabilities who are on both Medicare and Medicaid. Read the Healthwatch story.

No-PAB: The Alliance for Specialty Medicine almost immediately put out a press release blasting the proposal.

"The President's proposal to expand IPAB only furthers the largest problem facing Medicare patients, and that is access to physicians," Alliance spokesman Alex Valadka said. "Doctors cannot continue to ably treat Medicare patients if they are constantly wondering whether or not the money will be there to reimburse them."

The New York Times takes a look at the leading proposals to reform Medicare.

Support for Democrats' healthcare reform law polls at an all-time low, reports The Associated Press. 

Obama administration officials, however, draw attention to two favorable results: Respondents still say they trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare, 53 percent to 36. And 52 percent approve of the president's handling of the issue versus 48 percent who disapprove.

House Republicans are touting the cuts to the healthcare reform law in their budget deal with the White House. These include: 

• Forcing another repeal vote in the Senate;

• Requiring an internal audit of the law's impact on the economy, premiums, comparative effectiveness research and the hiring of contractors needed to implement it;

• Freezing the IRS budget, which will affect enforcement of the law's new taxes and mandates;

• Restricting the use of the law's Prevention and Public Health Fund;

• Eliminating Free Choice Vouchers that would have allowed some employees to opt for coverage in state exchanges instead of their employer's plans; and

• Cutting start-up funding for the law's healthcare cooperatives.

All eyes are on President Obama Wednesday, when he will outline long-term deficit reduction proposals in a high-profile speech at George Washington University. The speech will be an answer for the budget proposed last week by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who included major overhauls to the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

White House spokesman Jay Carney refused to preview details on Tuesday, but senior adviser David Plouffe said on Sunday the speech will touch on Medicare and Medicaid. Republicans have criticized the administration over the past two months for punting on entitlements in his 2012 budget proposal released in February.

The speech presents a delicate balance for Obama: Avoid too many cuts that will upset Democrats, but provide a serious enough alternative that can rival Ryan's plan.

Enter Simpson-Bowles?: Some reports indicate Obama will embrace the his fiscal commission's report. The plan laid out several major healthcare recommendations: freezing Medicare's sustainable growth rate through 2014 while coming up with a long-term solution; establishing a global budget for total healthcare spending; speeding up some payment reforms included in the Affordable Care Act; and strengthening a new independent Medicare advisory board.

House Dems will offer up plan: Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the House Budget Committee's ranking member, said the panel's Democrats will put out their own budget proposal Wednesday. However, he didn't offer any details on how Democrats will address healthcare entitlement programs. Check out The Hill's story.

Medicaid block granting gets a boost: Douglas Holtz-Eakin's American Action Forum is building support for Medicaid vouchers with a report that proposes a long-term strategic plan for tackling the program's exploding costs. Called FLEX — Financial accountability, Lean operations, Ensured access to care, Xpanded state ownership — the proposal aims to give states more power to create payment models that encourage and reward care management and savings.