I didn't see this diaried anywhere else on the site, so I figured I'd take a crack at it and pass the information on.
Apparently this week House GOP members are scheduled to push a bill that will abolish the IPAB, that is, the Independant Payment Advisory Board. This body, set up as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2009, was intended to take the a look at excess spending in Medicare / Medicaid, and find ways to clean it up and stream line it.
Apparently, the GOP is all over this, seeing it as a potential target for an election year victory against "Obamacare", and a chance to tell their constituency back home that "they killed part of Obamacare".
Follow me, if you will, below the squiggly satanic orange thingy...
House moves to kill key provision in 'Obamacare'
So here we are - the GOP House leadership seems to think that it's a good idea to score some political points by trying to eradicate the IPAB, and at the same time attaching a amendment that will cap the amounts paid out in medical malpractice lawsuits.
The vote this week is being muddled by House Republican leaders’ decision to tack on a separate provision putting a limit on damages awarded in medical malpractice cases. Almost all Democrats are likely to oppose that idea, and thus, the larger anti-IPAB bill.
I don't know a lot about how parts of this bill are supposed to work, but it seems to me that if you take the power to clean up healtchcare out of the hands of politicans, and put it in the hands of those that actually know what they're doing, that would be a good thing, right? RIGHT???
When Congress tries to control Medicare spending, Rockefeller complained in 2009, there are “too many lobbyists involved and it's very, very difficult if you have a lobbyist that comes in … who represents an industry in your state which could gain an enormous advantage by having an increase in the reimbursement rates for Medicare , for oxygen or for something else.”
Rather than members of Congress deciding what Medicare will pay for, Rockefeller said, “These are decisions that should be made by professionals, people who are public policy professionals. They're not lobbyists. And they're not necessarily sitting with congressmen or senators.”
Uwe Reinhardt, a health care economist at Princeton University and an IPAB supporter, said Congress “micro-manages in the most amazing way” in deciding how Medicare operates.
And yet, he said, members of Congress are “beset by incredible conflicts of interest. With Congress, you really always have to worry: Whom do they represent: the people, or particular interest groups that give them money?” Companies that sell services to Medicare also contribute to congressional campaigns, he noted.
IPAB will be composed of 15 experts, yet to be appointed by Obama, who’ll be given the task of keeping per-capita growth in Medicare spending from exceeding a target: national income growth rate, plus 1 percent.
I can't see any good coming out of what the GOP is trying to accomplish b doing all of this, other than allowing them to take a victory lap by saying "we're going to repeal Obamacare in pieces if we have to".
Am I the only one that sees this as a really bad idea?
IPAB supporters say that setting up a non-politicized cost-cutting process is necessary in order to control the growth in Medicare costs, with IPAB as a backstop if other cost-limiting parts of the law do not work.
IPAB would be akin to the idea of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Past BRAC panels have been successful in eradicating redundant military bases.
Sigh.