Government auditors call for end to $8 billion Medicare bonus program

[Conservative]

Government auditors call for end to $8 billion Medicare bonus program

In a rebuke to the Obama administration, government auditors are calling for the cancellation of an $8 billion Medicare program that congressional Republicans have criticized as a political ploy.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office says in a report to be released Monday that the $8.3 billion the administration has earmarked for quality bonuses to Medicare Advantage insurance plans would postpone the pain of cuts to the plans under the new health care law. Most of the money would go to plans rated merely average.

The administration is defending the program, saying that without the bonuses many plans wouldn't have an incentive to improve quality.

President Barack Obama's health care law trimmed Medicare Advantage to compensate for prior years of overpayments that had allowed the plans to offer attractive benefits -- and pocket healthy profits.

Republicans fiercely attacked those cuts during their successful campaign to take control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections. Seniors, a key constituency of swing voters, responded by backing GOP candidates.

So... Obama makes cuts to Medicare in ACA... Dems could care less.

Obama throws extra money at medicare to help defray his own cuts... Dems could care less.

Republicans fought Obama's cuts to Medicare... Dems accuse the GOP of 'killing granny'.

Now the GAO says the 8 billion Obama is trying to use to defray his own cuts to Medicare, is a political ploy and should be ended. I wonder if the Dems care?

 

[SniperFire]

Harry Reid has crippled Congress' ability to take action against the Obama crime syndicate.

 

[uscitizen]

Medicare advantage? You mean the privatized part of Medicare?

Yep a Bush III move on Obama's part. Why would the privatized medicare improve itself if you don't give it more money?

 

[uscitizen]

Private health plans, now called Medicare Advantage plans, were first allowed to participate in Medicare because some policymakers believed they could provide better services at a lower cost than traditional Medicare. In fact, because it was anticipated private plans would be so efficient, the government initially paid them five percent less for each beneficiary they enrolled than it would have cost to cover that same beneficiary in traditional Medicare.

In 25 years time, the powerful health insurance industry lobby has been extremely successful in turning this rationalization on its head. Instead of paying private plans less to reflect the efficiencies they argued would save the government money, Medicare now pays them significantly more than it would cost to cover the same beneficiaries through traditional fee-for-service Medicare. In fact, today the government pays an average of 14 percent more to cover a beneficiary in a private Medicare Advantage plan than it would cost to cover that same beneficiary in traditional Medicare.
NCPSSM: Viewpoint: Eliminate Medicare Advantage Overpayments

Meidcare Advantage was started in 1997 inder Clowntoon and a republican congress.
It origionally cut medicare spending by 5%, however it now costs 14% more than traditional medicare.

Seems like private healthcare is not doing as good of a job as our gummit does on providing health care for the elderly.
Another republican myth down in flames.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=5169680

 

[Wry Catcher]

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Reducing government deficits Mitt Romney's way would mean less money for health care for the poor and disabled and big cuts to nuts-and-bolts functions such as food inspection, border security and education."

GUNS OVER BUTTER!

LINK: Romney on spending: Guns triumph over butter - Yahoo! News

The negative consequences of a Republican victory in November are enormous. If the right wing of the Republican Party gets its way, the cost to dismantle and then repair the damage they will do will far exceed our ability to maintain our role as the leader of the free world. If their attack on the aged, the infirm, the youth and women continues they will lose any future election, if and only if future elections are free and unencumbered. And that will be unlikely.

Founder Franklin was correct, we were given a Republic, can we keep it?

 

[Greenbeard]

Medicare advantage? You mean the privatized part of Medicare?

Indeed, that experiment with privatization has been a money pit for the last decade. How many ways is administration after administration going to find to prop up these private insurers to make their service and product look as appealing to seniors as fee-for-service Medicare?

Quality bonuses are a nice idea until they become a tool for papering over the deficiencies of privatization. The GAO is correct, this should be canceled. And if the administration is correct that overpaying private insurers is the only way to ensure quality, then perhaps we ought to re-examine the entire Medicare Advantage program. Before the Ryans of the world double down on it.