How ObamaCare Guts Medicare

How ObamaCare Guts Medicare

Altogether, ObamaCare cuts $818 billion from Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) from 2014-2023 -- the first 10 years of its full implementation -- and $3.2 trillion over the first 20 years, 2014-2033. Adding in ObamaCare cuts for Medicare Part B (physician fees and other services) brings the total cut to $1.05 trillion over the first 10 years and $4.95 trillion over the first 20 years, say Peter Ferrara, director of entitlement and budget policy at the Institute for Policy Innovation, and Larry Hunter, president of the Social Security Institute.

These draconian cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, hospitals and other health care providers were the basis for the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) official score that the health reform legislation would actually reduce the federal deficit. But Mr. Obama never disclosed how that deficit reduction would be achieved, say Ferrara and Hunter.

There will be additional cuts under ObamaCare to Medicare Advantage, the private option to Medicare that close to one-fourth of all seniors has chosen for their coverage.

It is estimated that 50 percent of all seniors with Medicare Advantage will lose their plan because of these cuts.

Mr. Obama's pledge that "if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep it" clearly does not apply to America's seniors, say Ferrara and Hunter.

Source: Peter Ferrara and Larry Hunter, "How ObamaCare Guts Medicare," Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2010.