Frank’s Parting Shot Aimed at the Democrat-Created Medicare IRS

Even Growing Numbers of Dems Are Supporting Repeal of ObamaCare’s Unelected Board of Bureaucrats Empowered to Gut Medicare 

• Rep. Barney Frank’s retirement announcement wouldn’t have been complete without a parting shot at his fellow Democrats. Frank’s target was the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a central plank of Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare and a hallmark of their plan to gut Medicare.
• Frank is the 12th Democrat to sign on to repeal IPAB, a new bureaucracy that other Democrats have called a “mindless rate-cutting machine” that will “gut Medicare” and threaten seniors’ access to care.
• Democrats are realizing that the IPAB they created would put a board of 15 unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats between seniors and their doctors. It’s easy to see, then, why so many Democrat are having a change of heart and joining Republican efforts to repeal yet another part of Democrats’ disastrous healthcare law.

BACKGROUND 

Rep. Barney Frank’s retirement announcement wouldn’t have been complete without a parting shot at his fellow Democrats. Frank’s target was the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a central plank of Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare and a hallmark of their plan to gut Medicare:

REP. BARNEY FRANK SIGNS ON TO BILL THAT WOULD REPEAL INDEPENDENT PAYMENT ADVISORY BOARD: (Matthew Boyle, “Lame-Duck Barney Frank Joins Effort to Repeal ObamaCare ‘Death Panels’,” The Daily Caller, 11/29/2011)

Frank is the 12th Democrat to sign on to repeal IPAB, a new bureaucracy that other Democrats have called a “mindless rate-cutting machine” that will “gut Medicare” and threaten seniors’ access to care:

TWELVE DEMOCRATS HAVE SIGNED ON TO REPEAL IPAB—AND COUNTING:(Matthew Boyle, “Lame-Duck Barney Frank Joins Effort to Repeal ObamaCare ‘Death Panels’,” The Daily Caller, 11/29/2011)

REP. ALLYSON SCHWARTZ (D-PA) SAYS OBAMA’S MEDICARE BOARD WILL “CUT PAYMENTS” AND SHOULD BE REPEALED: “We all agree that Medicare costs must be contained and that the payment system is flawed and needs to be replaced. But simply cutting reimbursements is not the answer. IPAB brings unpredictability and uncertainty to providers and has the potential for stifling innovation and collaboration. … We have a choice: Reduce costs through improved delivery of care or simply leave it to this new board to cut payments.” (Rep. Allyson Schwartz, “Opposing View: Repeal Medicare Board,” USA Today, 5/23/2011) 

REP. PETE STARK (D-CA): IPAB IS A “MINDLESS-RATE CUTTING MACHINE THAT SETS THE PROGRAM UP FOR UNSUSTAINABLE CUTS”: “I oppose the inclusion the Independent Payment Advisory Commission, called IPAB.  Some of my colleagues support this Commission because it shields them from having to take tough votes when it comes to cutting Medicare provider payments. It’s my experience that Congress always does what is needed to protect and strengthen the Medicare program.  IPAB is a dangerous provision.   By statute, this Commission would be required to hold Medicare spending to an arbitrary and unrealistic growth rate.  It is a mindless-rate cutting machine that sets the program up for unsustainable cuts. That will endanger the health of America’s seniors and people with disabilities.  It is an unprecedented abrogation of  Congressional authority to an unelected, unaccountable body of so-called experts.  I intend to work tirelessly to mitigate the damage that will be caused by IPAB.” (“Statement of Congressman Pete Stark Supporting Health Care Reform,” Office of Rep. Pete Stark, 3/21/2011)

FORMER REP. RON KLINK (D-PA) SAYS IPAB “IS DEMOCRATS’ ACHILLES’ HEEL,” WILL “GUT MEDICARE”: “Medicare, Medicaid, and healthcare in general are the issues that Democrats hope to ride to victory in the polls in 2012. … But we could easily lose this edge when the public figures out that many Democrats support or at least don’t oppose a poorly conceived bureaucracy created under the new healthcare law that will accomplish the same thing they accuse the Ryan plan of doing, gutting Medicare.” (Ron Klink, “IPAB Is Democrats’ Achilles’ Heel,” The Hill, 6/15/2011)

Democrats are realizing that the IPAB they created would put a board of 15 unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats between seniors and their doctors. It’s easy to see, then, why so many Democrat are having a change of heart and joining Republican efforts to repeal yet another part of Democrats’ disastrous healthcare law:

OBAMA’S MEDICARE PLAN: EMPOWER “15 SAGES” WITH “THE POWER OF THE PURSE”: “Fifteen members will serve on the Independent Payment Advisory Board, all appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. If per capita costs grow by more than GDP plus 0.5%, this board would get more power, including an automatic budget sequester to enforce its rulings. So 15 sages sitting in a room with the power of the purse will evidently find ways to control Medicare spending that no one has ever thought of before and that supposedly won’t harm seniors’ care, even as the largest cohort of the baby boom generation retires and starts to collect benefits.” (Editorial Board, “The Presidential Divider,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/14/2011) 

BUREAUCRAT BOARD MADE EVEN STRONGER THAN UNDER GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER: “The president, for his part, answered Ryan’s budget by proposing an even stronger version of the board than the health reform law created.” (Jennifer Haberkorn, “Medicare Pay Board Is Losing Vital Support,” Politico, 6/8/2011)

NOT A DOCTOR? DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT: “The appointment membership of the board shall include (but shall not be limited to) physicians and other health professionals, experts in the area of pharmaco-economics or prescription drug benefit programs, employers, third-party payers, individuals skilled in the conduct and interpretation of biomedical, health services, and health economics research and expertise in outcomes and effectiveness research and technology assessment. Such membership shall also include representatives of consumers and the elderly.”(p. 402, “Sec.3403. Independent [Medicare] Payment Advisory Board,” Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 5/3/2010) 

IPAB MEMBERS CAN SERVE UP TO TWELVE YEARS, OR TWO SIX YEAR TERMS, WITHOUT EVER FACING VOTERS: “Terms are for six years, and members may serve no more than two consecutive terms.” (Jack Ebeler, Tricia Neuman, and Juliette Cubanski, “The Independent Payment Advisory Board: A New Approach to Controlling Medicare Spending,” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, April 2011)

ALL WHILE RECEIVING A TAX-PAYER FUNDED SALARY OF $165,300/YEAR: “IPAB members are paid at a rate prescribed for level III of the Executive Schedule, which is $165,300 in 2011.” (Jack Ebeler, Tricia Neuman, and Juliette Cubanski, “The Independent Payment Advisory Board: A New Approach to Controlling Medicare Spending,” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, April 2011) 

WSJ: OBAMA MEDICARE PLAN IS MEDICARE “RATIONING”, WILL “THROW GRANNY OVER THE CLIFF”: “One place to start is by attacking the Democratic plan to cut Medicare via political rationing. Mr. Ryan’s budget had the virtue of embarrassing President Obama’s spend-more initial budget, and the White House responded by proposing to increase the power of the new Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) to decide what, and how much, Medicare will pay for. The ObamaCare bill goes to great lengths to shelter this 15-member, unelected board from Congressional review, with the goal of letting these bureaucrats throw granny over the cliff if Medicare isn’t reformed. Yet few Americans know anything about IPAB or its rationing intentions.” (Editorial, “The GOP’s New York Spanking,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/26/2011)

OBAMA MEDICARE BOARD CREATED TO “PUT THE KNIFE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S HAND” WHEN CUTTING BENEFITS: “The hope is that this will free Congress to permit cuts by making it easier for them to dodge the blame. ‘Putting the knife in someone else’s hand will be a relief,’ says Robert Reischauer, director of the Urban Institute and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. ‘It will allow Congress to rant against the cuts without actually stopping them.'” (Ezra Klein, “GOP Shortsighted in Targeting Health Care Cost Controls,” The Washington Post, 8/19/2010)