Obamacare: Day Three of Senate Finance Committee Hearings On Thursday, September 24th, the Senate Finance Committee continued to vote on amendments to the “Chairman’s Mark” of the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009. As the committee continues to consider more than 500 amendments, it is becoming clear that Senators are directly undercutting the high profile promises that President Obama made to the American people in his widely broadcasted address to Congress on September 9, 2009. Consider several health policy decisions made by members of the Senate Finance Committee: Cutting Medicare …
The New York Times released a new poll today finding that 55% of Americans believe President Obama has not clearly explained his plans for changing the health care system and 59% said they thought the health care changes under consideration in Congress were confusing. In a follow-up interview, Paul Corkery, a Democrat from Somerset, N.J, said: “The Obama administration seems to have a plan, but I’m not understanding the exact details.” Corkery shouldn’t feel that bad. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the independent nonpartisan agency responsible for reviewing legislative initiatives …
President Barack Obama has promised Americans on multiple occasions that his health care plan would not cut benefits for Medicare enrollees. For example, on August 11th Obama promised: “I just want to be clear, again: Seniors who are listening here, this does not affect your benefits. This is not money going to you to pay for your benefits; this is money that is subsidizing folks who don’t need it.” We pointed out at the time that Obama’s statement is simply not true. Yesterday, Associated Press reported: The head of the …
Since many Americans with special needs, or their caretakers, use Medicare Advantage plans as a way to pay for their higher medical costs, they have every right to be concerned about the reduced funding congressional leadership is proposing to pay for its massive health care legislation. Dennis Smith, who worked tirelessly to improve options for disabled Americans when he was at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, notes that H.R. 3200 would reduce reimbursement for Medicare Advantage plans, resulting in fewer health insurance plans tailored to those with disabilities …
“Nobody is talking about reducing Medicare benefits,” says President Obama…except the lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have proposed to cut roughly $150 billion from the highly popular Medicare Advantage program. One in five seniors enjoy richer and more varied benefits with Medicare Advantage than those in traditional Medicare. Spending needs to be reigned in. But any savings need to go toward lowering Medicare’s long-term cost — not creating a new government-run health care program. The video below is Heritage’s response to the White House’s video dealing with proposed health reform’s …
Yesterday at his AARP townhall, President Barack Obama claimed: “Nobody is talking about cutting Medicare benefits.” The July 28th Barack Obama needs to talk to the January 11th Barack Obama, who told ABC News: We’ve got to eliminate programs that don’t work, and I’ll give you an example in the health care area. We are spending a lot of money subsidizing the insurance companies around something called Medicare Advantage, a program that gives them subsidies to accept Medicare recipients but doesn’t necessarily make people on Medicare healthier. And if we …
Today at 1:30 PM, President Barack Obama will participate in a health care “tele-town hall” at AARP headquarters in Washington, DC. The President is scheduled to answer questions about his health care plan from AARP members via phone, email, and even a live audience of about 40 AARP members and volunteers. We hope the event’s moderators will allow for a lively and honest debate, because our nation’s seniors stand to be huge losers under Obamacare: Losing Your Doctor: Under the current system, more and more seniors are discovering that it …
This week’s debate over the Medicare bill (H.R. 6331) ranks as the biggest battle over health care policy since last year’s bitter debate over the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). President Bush, vowing to oppose any bill that would curtail the personal choices or benefit options of seniors enrolled in Medicare, vetoed the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act. Earlier this week, however, the House voted 383 to 41 to override Bush’s veto, and the Senate followed suit, overriding the veto by a vote of …
The Left is winning the big health care policy victories with the help of rank and file GOP members and their feckless Republican Leadership in Congress. The latest example is the enactment of H.R.6331, The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act. In spite of threatened Presidential veto, the bill passed the House this week by a lopsided 355 to 59 vote. The bill does nothing at all to reform the Medicare dinosaur, and every provision simply reinforces its worst features, bureaucratic central planning and its mind numbing price controls. …
The fight to rein in exploding Medicare spending through exposure to market forces took two giant steps back this week. First, the House voted early this week to set aside regulations that would have allowed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to buy medical equipment through competitive bidding. Then yesterday, the House voted to raid one of the most popular market-based health care initiatives: Medicare Advantage. Since its creation in 2003, Medicare Advantage has helped more than 9 million Medicare recipients enroll in private health maintenance organizations (HMOs), …
