TheSeeker
Member
I believe this could be filed under the heading of "FRAUD".
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admits that Democrats double-counted the $500 billion cut in Medicare that supposedly goes for both cost control and to fund other parts of the program.
The actuarys report made this crystal clear last summer:
Even apart from the double counting, the actuary had little faith in ObamaCares ability to deliver the savings claimed by Sebelius in this clip, also noted last summer:
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admits that Democrats double-counted the $500 billion cut in Medicare that supposedly goes for both cost control and to fund other parts of the program.
There is an issue here on the budget because your own actuary has said you cant double-count. You cant count theyre attacking Medicare on the CR when their bill, your law, cut $500 billion from Medicare.
Then youre also using the same $500 billion to what? Say your funding health care. Your own actuary says you cant do both. [ ] Whats the $500 billion in cuts for? Preserving Medicare or funding the health-care law?
Sebelius reply?: Both.
The actuarys report made this crystal clear last summer:
Bad though all of this is, none of it is actually the worst gimmick in the official reports advertised improvement in Medicare solvency. That involves the double-counting of Medicare savings. Earlier this year, Congress passed a health care bill containing various new Medicare taxes and constraints on program expenditures. Such savings are assumed in the official report to extend the solvency of Medicare. But Congress chose instead to spend the savings on a new health care entitlement.
The Medicare actuary wrote a memorandum on April 22 of this year calling attention to this double-counting. In practice, he stated, the improved Part A financing cannot simultaneously be used to finance other Federal outlays (such as the coverage expansions under the PPACA) and to extend the trust fund, despite the appearance of this result from the respective accounting conventions.
In other words, money can only be used once. Since the Medicare savings is being spent elsewhere on expanded health care coverage, it is not really being employed to extend Medicare solvency. To claim an improvement in Medicare financing is to mislead about the effects of recent legislation.
Even apart from the double counting, the actuary had little faith in ObamaCares ability to deliver the savings claimed by Sebelius in this clip, also noted last summer:
(T)he financial projections shown in this report for Medicare do not represent a reasonable expectation for actual program operations in either the short range. . . or the long range. . . . I encourage readers to review the illustrative alternative projections that are based on more sustainable assumptions for physician and other Medicare price updates.
These remarkable words are found, in all places, in the Statement of Actuarial Opinion in the back of the 2010 annual Medicare Trustees Report.
It is difficult to overstate how unusual this development is. The normal process with the annual Trustees Reports is for the Trustees to develop and publish the best available projections for the future finances of Social Security and Medicare. The respective Social Security and Medicare actuaries then sign a pro forma blessing of those projections, which is tacked to the back of the report when released to the public.
This year, the Medicare Chief Actuary clearly did not feel he could in good conscience sign such a declaration.
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