Obama Is Messing With Medicare

To the Editor:

If you are a senior on Medicare or plan to be one soon, you need to know about the two very different proposals that are being discussed to deal with overwhelming Medicare costs. Congressman Paul Ryan proposes no changes whatsoever be made for current Medicare recipients, or for anyone age 55 or over who will enter Medicare when eligible, using standards that are in place right now. Younger people will have time to make up a new Medicare “package” made up of vouchers and their own healthcare savings accounts. Again, this plan does not endanger the Medicare for current recipients or anyone over the age of 55.

The other cost-cutting plan comes from Obama. He proposes the formation of a panel called the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This panel would be made up of 15 “experts” chosen by Obama himself. These (IPAB) board proposals would carry the full force of the law unless the Congress is able to pass more stringent plans to achieve the same or more cost cuts within one year. If Congress does not act, any and all “proposals” made by this (unelected) board would become law. Further, there would be no appeal possible.

So, what kind of proposals could we expect from this unelected, above-it-all group of insulated “experts”? Well, this group will be directed to spring into action if the “average cost of Medicare for each beneficiary exceeds the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by one percent.” Obama proposed last week that Congress modify the law to allow IPAB recommendations to take effect if average Medicare costs rise by merely 0.5 percent of the GDP. James Capretta, a top healthcare official under Bush said that the only thing the IPAB can do is reduce what Medicare providers are paid. Of course, Capretta said, this reimbursement to providers would be less and less, until the providers say they can’t provide service at that price, and they stop doing so. That’s when you end up with the situation of...rationing. This is how the panel gets around the law that forbids it from “rationing.” It just creates the condition that brings about rationing.

We know that Obama wants to cut costs on the backs of seniors, and with this plan he thinks he won’t get his hands dirty. He thinks we seniors are too stupid to connect the dots. Are we? Are we fooled by a pleasant looking, smiling Obama looking directly into the camera and in a smooth, calm voice telling us that his measures will make everything okay? We have to do our own thinking, because we are only numbers on a spreadsheet to Obama. I don’t trust him, do you?

Call Rep. Chris Murphy and tell him to vote to repeal Obama’s IPAB panel. Tell him you don’t want Medicare services to current recipients messed with and that you know Ryan’s plan exempts us. You can follow this by going to opencongress.org and typing in “Independent Payment Advisory Board.”

Marybeth Hibbard

33 Taunton Lake Road, Newtown                                 April 25, 2011