Senators Challenge Medicare Cost-Cutting Panel
July 30, 2010
Five Senators have filed legislation to eliminate a committee created to review future cost growth in the Medicare program.
Entitled the “Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act, the bill seeks to eliminate the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) which was created as part of the health care reform law passed earlier this year.
The measure was introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and is co-sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Tom Coburn (R-OK).
The purpose of the 15-member IPAB is to monitor growth in Medicare spending and recommend cuts if increases in spending exceed a preset rate. If Congress fails to respond to the cuts, they would take effect without Congressional action.
"America’s seniors deserve the ability to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions that affect their Medicare, but IPAB would take that away from seniors and put power in the hands of politically-appointed Washington bureaucrats," Cornyn said in announcing the legislation.
The IPAB would begin identifying cuts to be made – if any – in 2014.
Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, is largely responsible for inclusion of the IPAB in the health care reform measure. Orszag was disappointed that Congressional sponsors of the bill, especially Democrats, were unwilling to take a hard look at controlling costs in the Medicare program.
The Alliance for Specialty Medicine, an umbrella group of specialist physicians, is backing elimination of the IPAB.
“As specialty doctors, our main goal is to help ensure that patients have access to the health care they need to get better and, as doctors, we’re very concerned that the IPAB will have unprecedented power to make cuts to the Medicare program,” said Dr. Alex Valadka, an Austin, Texas neurosurgeon and spokesperson for the Alliance.
Before becoming director of OMB, Orszag served as director of the Congressional Budget Office and was a prominent health care economist. Orszag is stepping down as director of OMB to take a position as a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
In his final speech this week as OMB director, Orszag identified growth in health care costs as the biggest driver in long-term deficits.
“We cannot cut other spending or raise revenue enough. The math simply does not work in any viable way,” he said.