Translation: This is the most reliable projection you're going to get, sir. Though the budget office recognizes its projections are complicated, it reminded the speaker that the nonpartisan office has "devoted a great deal of care and effort" to the analysis of health care spending. Though it costs money to provide health insurance to Americans, the law's mix of spending cuts, tax increases, penalties, fees and other changes more than offset that cost. The gist of it: Repealing Obamacare will make the nation's overall fiscal situation worse by adding $109 billion to the national deficit from 2013 to 2022. Then they ignored the other 21 pages of the letter. Opponents seized on that explanation and reframed it as proof that keeping the law in place would "cut" Medicare spending by that amount. The CBO determined that ending the law would increase Medicare spending by $711 billion over a decade. It's likely she's referring to a nugget in the same CBO document other members of her party have referenced on this issue: a letter it sent to House Speaker John Boehner in 2012.īoehner asked the CBO to estimate the impact on the federal budget if Obamacare were repealed. If a politician doesn't support spending reductions then perhaps he or she supports tax increases to shore up the program.Įrnst credits the Congressional Budget Office for the source of her $700 billion figure. In a nutshell, the government needs to generate more revenue to pay for health care for the elderly, spend less on health care or a combination of both. Though she admitted she hadn't endorsed any particular option for addressing Medicare's problems, the choices are limited. "We have to address those problems and we need to look at many options out there." Only minutes before Ernst criticized the "cuts," she said, "We have to acknowledge that there is a problem" with the program's long-term solvency. There is something ironic about Republicans criticizing changes in how Medicare uses taxpayer money. In other words, the law does things that make sense as the population ages and more Americans enroll in Medicare. The law encourages providers to be more efficient and provide better care. It reduces reimbursements for some providers, cuts taxpayer subsidies to private insurers who offer more-costly Medicare Advantage plans and pays hospitals less if they fail to meet new benchmarks in patient care. The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, does seek to hold down the rate of growth in Medicare spending. The implication is this reduces benefits for seniors. Mimicking television advertisements during the 2012 election season, she said the Affordable Care Act "cut Medicare" by more than $700 billion. Senate candidate Joni Ernst during her debate with U.S. This is why politicians repeatedly promise to "protect" Medicare and accuse their opponents of seeking to destroy the program. These people like their coverage, and they vote in elections. Medicare provides government-funded health insurance to millions of older Americans.
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