Another Independent Analysis of ObamaCare Means More Bad News for America’s Seniors

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Washington, July 27, 2012 | comments

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released the first updated estimate of the Democrats’ health care law since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which indicates that ObamaCare’s Medicare cuts will be 50 percent higher than initially predicted.  Just two years ago, when ObamaCare was signed into law, CBO predicted that ObamaCare would slash Medicare by more than $500 billion from 2010 through 2019.  Now, CBO’s updated analysis predicts that the Democrats’ health care law will gut the Medicare program by more than $750 billion from 2013-2022 to fund a new entitlement.  A tally of some of those Medicare cuts in ObamaCare include:
  • $308 billion: Cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, where more than one in four Medicare beneficiaries receive their Medicare health benefits (note: the amount includes interactions);
  • $294 billion: Payment cuts to hospitals (including DSH);
  • $66 billion: Cuts in payments for home health services;
  • $39 billion: Reductions in nursing home payments; and
  • $17 billion: Cuts to hospice payments to hospice providers.
All told, ObamaCare raids the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (Part A) by $517 billion and Supplementary Medicare Insurance Trust Fund (Part B) by $247 billion over the next 10 years.  You may recall that Obama Administration officials have repeatedly warned that ObamaCare’s Medicare cuts are so drastic that seniors' access to care might be jeopardized.  So it’s not surprising that the CBO analysis comes with a sobering reminder that ObamaCare’s Medicare cuts “might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time.”
 
Rather than use Medicare spending reductions to shore up the Medicare program, which is now expected to go bankrupt by 2024, Democrats chose to use Medicare as its slush fund to fund a massive government takeover of health care.  Yet another reason ObamaCare must be repealed.
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