IPAB Is Really, Really Doomed
When the first health-care provider group that is angered by a decision from the Independent Payment Advisory Board decides to fight back, it will have a ready list of allies.
According to Politico, a bill introduced by Rep. David Poe, R-Tenn., to repeal IPAB has seven Democrat co-sponsors. Thus far IBD has only been able to track down five: Allyson Schwartz, Pa.; Linda Sanchez, Calif.; Kathy Castor, Fla.; Michael Capuano, Mass.; and Shelley Berkley, Nev. UPDATE: The two other Democrats who have signed on to the bill are Larry Kissell, N.C., and Chaka Fattah, Pa.
Additionally, at least one prominent left-wing activist has turned against IPAB:
“IPAB turns Medicare into a scapegoat,” said Max Richtman, executive vice president and acting CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “Medicare will be forced to make reductions without addressing the rest of the health care costs.”
IPAB, created under Obama-Care, will consist of 15 members appointed by the White House and Senate. They will recommend changes to Medicare payments in years that the government program exceeds set spending targets. Congress can override IPAB, but only if it comes up with equivalent savings.
As Capital Hill has been pointing out, history is littered with supposedly “independent commissions” whose task was to cut spending for government-run health care programs. They lasted only until they cut something that upset a health-care interest group with political clout. Then Congress emasculated them.
As Politico noted, overturning IPAB decisions will be difficult, something that concerns “lawmakers, who are most likely to face the political fallout for the board’s actions.”
This also presents difficulties for President Obama, who has predicated his 12-year-$4-trillion deficit reduction package on expanding the power of IPAB. Having Democrats jumping ship is not going to help him sell it.
Nor will it help in the battle with the GOP over the future of Medicare. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has advanced a plan to turn Medicare into a program that gives seniors premium support to purchase private policies. The Democrats, seeing an opportunity, have dubbed it a “voucher” plan that “ends Medicare as we know it.” It may even push grandma off a cliff!
Obama and Democrat leaders will need to tamp down on IPAB defectors until the 2012 election. And the GOP needs to keep whispering in rank-and-file Democrats’ ears.