Dr. Boustany is the new Chairman of the Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee and he opened today’s hearing with a useful summary of why Americans, particularly seniors, should be concerned about the activities and motives of AARP: AARP has morphed into an insurance and advertising powerhouse. According to the most recent data we have, AARP, Inc. and its for-profit [...]
As I wrote in today’s column for the American Spectator, AARP’s endorsement of ObamaCare was all about the Benjamins. But unlike Judas, whose perfidy came at the cut rate price of 30 pieces of silver, AARP will scoop up a cool billion dollars for betraying its members: Based on … estimates of declines in Medicare Advantage [...]
Yesterday, Tom Price, M.D. (R-GA) questioned Donald Berwick, recess-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, at a hearing in the House Committee on Ways & Means. And Dr. Price was none too gentle about it. He pressed him especially hard on the promise that Americans could keep coverage that they like under ObamaCare. Berwick’s [...]
Since yesterday was Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, it seemed appropriate to re-post this 1960s audio of the Gipper warning against Medicare mission creep. Here’s the money quote: One of the traditional methods of imposing statism, or socialism, on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as [...]
The President has repeatedly told us that ObamaCare would control costs and that we can keep our insurance plans if we like them. Well, Medicare’s Chief Actuary begs to differ. Richard Foster appeared at a House Budget Committee hearing earlier today and here are his answers to a couple of questions from California congressman Tom McClintock: McCLINTOCK: True or [...]
Here’s a point that almost no one understands about the new regulation issued by Medicare concerning end-of-life counseling. Joseph Lawler, in his post at AmSpecBlog about this latest bureaucratic fiat, reminds us that Avik Roy raised the conflict of interest issue last summer. It comes down to this: if the government is funding health care, and simultaneously funding end-of-life counseling, the [...]
While we voters celebrated our midterm victory over the arrogant Democrats in Congress and the White House, they were busy preparing a special Christmas present for us: newly wrapped death panels: When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over ‘death panels,’ Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the [...]
One way the Democrats “paid” for ObamaCare was syphoning $500 billion out of the Medicare program. The government will pay doctors and hospitals less for the medical treatment of seniors. What does that have to do with rationing? Well, the inevitable effect of these lower payments is a decrease in the number of health care [...]
Donald Berwick, the recess-appointed CMS commissar whose recent Senate hearing was accurately characterized by Orrin Hatch as “pathetic,” is routinely represented by the “news” media as a “champion of transparency.” But he refuses to answer questions from anyone not reading from a White House-approved script. He won’t answer queries about the shady financial deals he set up at his [...]
For an English translation of ObamaCare, I recommend NCPA’s pamphlet: What Does Health Reform Mean for You? Among other things, it correctly points out that the costs of ”reform” will be disproportionately borne by Medicare patients (i.e. the elderly & disabled): More than half the cost of health reform will be paid for by $523 billion in reduced Medicare spending [...]
