Medicare

Republicans act with the air, if not a vote, of confidence

Durbin hits Ryan budget, eyes Medicare reform

Despite evidence, parents' fears of HPV vaccine grow

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Debate over the parties’ budgets will escalate this week as the two bills hit the House and Senate floors. 

A bipartisan group of 95 lawmakers pressed the Medicare agency Friday to abandon steep cuts to private Medicare Advantage plans.

The insurance industry has pulled out all the stops as it tries to fend off the proposed cuts, and Friday's letter from members of Congress is the biggest show of support yet from Capitol Hill.

The lawmakers urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider a proposed 2.2 percent cut in Medicare Advantage payments — a cut that would come on top of payment reductions in President Obama's healthcare law.

Advocates are welcoming a bill that would clarify Medicare's policy on hospital observation stays — rules that currently leave some seniors without coverage for subsequent nursing-home care.

The measure from Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Tom Latham (R-Iowa) would count observation stays toward the requirement that patients spend three days in the hospital to trigger follow-up coverage in skilled nursing facilities.

The bill, introduced Thursday, received praise from the American Health Care Association and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM). 

President Obama wrapped up his Capitol Hill tour Thursday with visits to the two minorities — Senate Republicans and House Democrats. And once again, entitlements were a big focal point in his discussions with lawmakers. Obama told the Senate GOP that he's serious about a "grand bargain" that includes tax revenues as well as entitlement cuts — it's not just a ploy to win back the House, he said.

Obama has backed away from several entitlement reforms he once supported, including raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67. But he's still open to a Social Security change known as "chained CPI" — much to the disappointment of some liberal Democrats. He made clear in his meeting with House Democrats that they will have to compromise on entitlements in order to secure a deal that includes new revenues.

Obama told Democrats that they have to be "open to putting traditional things on the table that we've not put on the table before ... some reform to entitlements," Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) said.

The Hill has full coverage of Obama's meeting with House Democrats and his talk with Senate Republicans.

Pelosi on board: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) left the door open to chained CPI on Thursday, ahead of her caucus' meeting with Obama.

"If we can demonstrate that it doesn’t hurt the poor and the very elderly, then let's take a look at it," Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. "Because compared to what? Compared to Republicans saying Medicare should wither on the vine? Social Security has no place in a free society?”

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A bipartisan House bill reintroduced Thursday would create 15,000 more medical residency positions under Medicare in a move to alleviate the looming U.S. doctor shortage.

The measure from Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) would mandate that 50 percent of the positions train residents in primary care.

It would also require federal health officials to study the specialty needs of the U.S. healthcare system as they evolve and allocate residencies accordingly. 

House Democrats sought to undo key portions of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) new budget by offering amendments that would preserve the Affordable Care Act and the status quo in Medicare.

Democrats on the Budget Committee, which Ryan leads, also entered Wednesday's markup armed with language to counteract Ryan's plan to block-grant Medicaid, a move that would expel tens of million of people from the program. 

Sens. Cruz and Lee say Ryan's budget should not have left the law's Medicare cuts or tax increases in place.

Democrats and Republicans sparred over entitlement programs Tuesday as House and Senate leaders released their annual budget outlines and President Obama traveled to the Capitol for a lunch meeting with Democrats.

Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pushed back against Obama’s openness to a technical change that would cut into seniors’ Social Security benefits, known as “chained CPI.” And Democrats in both chambers hammered Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for reviving his plan to partially privatize Medicare.

Ryan didn’t make any big changes to his Medicare plan, under which seniors would choose between the existing single-payer system and a subsidy for private coverage. He said it’s the only way to save Medicare from insolvency.

"The open-ended, blank-check nature of the Medicare subsidy drives health-care inflation at an astonishing pace, threatens the solvency of this critical program, and creates inexcusable levels of waste in the system," Ryan's 2014 budget proposal states.

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A new bill from Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) would require federal officials to negotiate drug prices in Medicare, a move that could spell big savings for the federal budget.

Welch estimated Tuesday that his Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act would save up to $156 billion over ten years. He cited the Department of Veterans Affairs, which already bargains for lower prices for commonly prescribed drugs.