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AAN poll shows Schweikert, Kelly & Gosar probably beating incumbent Dems for Congressional seats
Top Medicare official predicts federal reform will hurt health care
By Diane Cohen
Goldwater Institute
In an extraordinary move, an expert in President Obama’s administration has challenged the federal health care law’s mandate to arbitrarily reduce funding for Medicare under as “unsustainable,” “unworkable,” and likely to block some people from seeing their doctors.
Richard Foster serves as chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers Medicare coverage, and his job is to predict future health care costs. His office wrote a memo in August 2010 that objects to key estimates in the annual report about the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Trustees of those two funds are also Obama administration officials, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathryn Sebelius.
The trustees’ annual report claims the federal health care bill “improves the financial outlook for Medicare substantially.” But Mr. Foster’s staff strongly disputed that, writing that the report’s projections “do not represent the ‘best estimate’ of actual future Medicare spending.” Even worse, people with Medicare coverage will “almost certainly face increasing severe problems with access to care,” the memo says.
The memo also pointed out the annual report doesn’t consider that required spending cuts for Medicare could stop people who do see their doctors from getting the best possible health care, which could result in more patients falling ill or dying early.
Notably, the chief actuary must predict future growth in Medicare enrollment and spending each year, and give that information to a new federal agency created by health care reform called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). That board will have virtually unchecked power to adopt laws setting prices and payments for nearly all medical services.
The Goldwater Institute has identified IPAB as a critical reason why the federal health care bill is unconstitutional and must be struck down. Otherwise, as the chief actuary’s office has predicted, the mandated changes to Medicare likely will result in poorer health care for more people.
Diane Cohen is an attorney with the Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.
Ban Amnesty Now!
A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Thursday, September 2, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MEDIA CONTACT:
September 1, 2010 Sean McCaffrey (480/366-5975)
MEDIA ADVISORY: Pearce, Arpaio, Others
Press Conference 9:00 AM
PHOENIX, AZ¾ Arizona Senator Russell Pearce, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and other elected officials and VIPs will hold a 30-minute press conference in front of Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field at South 5th Street and East Jefferson Street.
The press conference will take place at 9:00AM, Thursday, September 2, 2010. Sheriff Arpaio and Senator Pearce will be joined by other elected officials and VIPs from around Arizona.
“Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Senator Russell Pearce, both national co-chairmen of BanAmnestyNow.com will be announcing the results of B.A.N.’s nationwide petition to keep the 2011 MLB All-Star Game here in Arizona,” said B.A.N. president Sean McCaffrey.
“Arizona is an All-Star State, leading the way in showing our federal government that laws can indeed be upheld,” McCaffrey said. “Other states are joining us. Citizens from all fifty states have signed B.A.N.’s petition asking Major League Baseball not to punish the citizens of Arizona because we chose to uphold the law.”
SUMMARY INFORATION:
Who: Sheriff Arpaio, Senator Pearce & Other VIPs
When: Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010 at 9:00AM
Where: Intersection of S. 5th Street and E. Jefferson St., Phoenix
Why: Because Arizona is an All-Star State!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Please contact Sean McCaffrey at B.A.N. at (480) 366-5975
or on his cell-phone at (602) 885-5815
