The House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee arranged a bipartisan debate on the day of Wednesday over the future of Medicare and planned cuts to the Medicare Advantage plan as sharp party classifies over healthcare sustain to widen.
Democrats criticize a Republican proposal to dismantle Medicare in the favor of a private voucher network, claimed ranking member Jim McDermott, D-Washington.
There is no present policy in the House or Senate for a voucher network to replace Medicare.
Something must be implemented, stated Subcommittee Chairman Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, because the Medicare network is headed towards the brink of redness, he claimed.
Legislators are meeting to seek ways to stop Medicare from going bankrupt. The health coverage for America’s people 65 and older could become insolvent in eight to ten years as a predicted 10,000 Baby Boomers a day turn 65, claimed Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Florida.
As they debated on the changes to Medicare, legislators discussed of being bombarded by TV ads and mailings inquiring for modifications to the planned cuts to Medicare Advantage program, ahead of the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) release of the final payment rates on the day of April 4.
The changes in executing latest methodology to measure Medicare Advantage payments would result in an assumed 0.5 to 3.9% cut to Medicare Advantage payments in the year 2017, in accordance to America’s Health Insurance Plans, which has been trying to keep funding as it is.
Medicare Advantage policies were paid a predicted $170 billion previous year.
Over a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage due its more detailed coverage, in accordance to Katherine Baicker, an economist and a professor of health economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health who attended the hearing of Wednesday.
Medicare Advantage was made in major part to make better the efficiency of healthcare delivery by promoting competition among private managed care policies.
Medicare Advantage payments are an assumed 10% higher in contrast to those to Medicare because of the increased coverage.
“I would notice those cuts are bringing Medicare Advantage in line with what conventional Medicare spends,” claimed Stuart Guterman, senior scholar in residence for The Commonwealth Fund.
The response is to make better the traditional Medicare so it is on a level playing field to compete with Medicare Advantage, he stated.
“One clear fact, persons in Medicare Advantage get more benefits, that is why it is a higher price,” stated Robert Moffit, a senior fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health Policy Studies. “I accept we require a level playing field to bring Medicare Advantage and Medicare into a straight head-to-head competition, in which we would have a common payment network that would apply to all.”
Diane Black, R-Tennessee, a nurse, recommended they submit a bill for a pilot project for value based insurance plan for Medicare Advantage that would give services of high value for beneficiaries with chronic situations.
Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, claimed Medicare Advantage requires performance metrics.
“My plea is for the Congressional Budget Office to really look and discover how much Medicare Advantage is really saving taxpayers,” he stated. “There is nothing wrong with searching under the hood and finding out.”
Tiberi claimed that he is also heard recommendation to join Medicare Parts A and B.
“My tension is, at the end of the day, if we are going to make a Medicare network that benefits seniors in complete, if we sustain to berate a network … I do not consider it is a good way to come together to facilitate seniors in the most cost effective, value-added way,” Tiberi claimed.
Moffit recommended Congress raise the age of Medicare eligibility steadily over the next ten years from 65 to 68, or nearly to 67, the eligibility age for Social Security for those born after the year 1954. Blumenauer stated that he was concerned about raising the age of retirement because it eliminates from the program the younger senior citizens who are the least costly consumers of Medicare.
The Subcommittee’s members have 2 weeks to submit the comments.
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