Romney's $716B Medicare cut attack is dubious

(CBS News) One thing that has changed since Paul Ryan was added to Mitt Romney's presidential ticket is that more and more attention has shifted to Medicare, and every time Gov. Romney mentions it, he says the president robbed the program of $716 billion.

"I can't believe it. He has taken $716 billion out of the Medicare trust fund to pay for Obamacare," Romney said at a recent campaign stop.

But where did that $716 billion figure come from?

From here: A July letter from the Congressional Budget Office to House Speaker John Boehner, which says if the president's Affordable Care Act is repealed, "spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion" over the next decade.

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The Romney campaign says that means the Obama adminsitration is cutting Medicare. Today, the president called it savings.

"I proposed reforms that will save Medicare money, by getting rid of wasteful spending in the health care system, reform that will not touch your Medicare benefits, not by a dime," Mr. Obama said.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, it's not the patients who would lose money. It's the providers.

The president's changes mean the annual increases insurance companies receive will be trimmed; hospital reimbursement rates would be reduced; and payments to home health care workers will also be cut back.

In fact, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's proposed budget contains these same reductions, something CBS News asked Governor Romney about today.

"Well, first of all, Congressman Ryan has joined my campaign and his campaign is my campaign now. And we're on the exactly the same page. And my campaign has made it very clear: The president's cuts of $716 billion to Medicare -- those cuts are going to be restored if I become president and Paul Ryan becomes vice president."

The Congressional Budget Office concluded the cuts -- which do not come out of the Medicare trust fund -- actually make Medicare more efficient and extend the life of the program. Additionally, all but four members of the house GOP voted for those same cuts in passing Ryan's budget plan.

[ber-ber24]

As someone in the medical field, please allow me to explain how Obama care is already hurting hospitals and doctors. I work at a small hospital--just above 200 beds. Not long ago, hospitals received a certain amt. of money from Medicare/Medicaid as reimbursement based on the number of patients we'd seen that year. If we did a really good job, we'd get a little extra. First the govt. did away with this incentive, but did reimburse at a fair price for the number of patients we'd taken care of. THEN, they took away the fair pay and began putting number goals we had to meet in order to get full repayment for the care given. If we didn't meet those numbers--which were at almost impossible to meet--they began to withhold a certain percentage of repayment, not just for the patient we didn't meet the goal on, but on every Medicare/Medicaid patient that walked through the door. And every year it doesn't meet those goals a bigger percentage is withheld. NOW, they've decided there are certain things they won't pay a dime for--regardless of the circumstances.
If anyone in the hospital slips and falls, there is absolutely no reimbursement for any care related to the fall. This does not take any extenuating circumstances into account. If someone has on 5" heels they can't walk in and falls, the hospital must pay. If a visitor spills a bit of coffee in the hall and someone right behind them slips in it--it's the hospital's fault. If a patient has Alzheimer's or Sundowner's and, gets confused, gets out of the bed without calling for assistance and falls--that's the hospital's fault. If someone comes in and has anesthesia, pain or sleeping pills and gets up without calling for assistance (and despite repeated warnings from the staff about how weak, dizzy and more likely to fall they'll be)--it's the hospital's fault--and the hospital has to eat every bit of that cost--stitches, x-rays, surgery, etc.
If a patient comes into the hospital with a wound already in place, but the staff don't discover that wound within the first 12 hours of admission, the hospital becomes liable for all care for that wound--bandages, IV antibiotics, debridement surgeries, muscle flap repair surgeries, ICU care if the infection becomes systemic--EVEN IF it is physically impossible for the patient to have gotten such a deep wound within 12hrs.
NOW, they've decided that any readmission within 30 days of discharge from a previous admission will not be reimbursed. If you leave the hospital after a bout of pneumonia, are in a car wreck on the way home, and have to be re-admitted to the hospital, Medicare/Medicaid will not pay. If you go to a different facility within that 30 days, it still comes back on the previous hospital.
As if all this wasn't bad enough, now they've decided they will only grant payment based on a pre-determined monetary amt. assigned to the diagnosis you're admitted with--regardless of how long you're in the hospital. If you're admitted with a heart attack, Medicare/Medicaid will pay a certain amt. If you're in the hospital for 2 days or 10 days the hospital is only paid x amt. of dollars. This will force hospitals to try to get patients out of the hospital faster just to be able to make enough $ to pay the bills and keep the doors open
My hospital is a non-profit business. Just this year it has done away with the pension plan, because they couldn't afford it. Now, they've put a wage freeze on for at least the next year, so NO ONE gets a raise, no matter how well you do your job. On top of that, since it's in the hole for over $200,000.00, there will be no Christmas bonus, AND they're looking to reduce benefit plans.
Now very few employees are complaining, cause we're all just thankful to still have a job, but in 2013 the cuts get even deeper and 2014 even deeper than that. Just how many hospitals do you think will be able to keep their doors open under this burden? Dr's get an automatic 27% cut in reimbursement rates beginning Jan. 2013. Do you know how many are retiring rather than deal with all this red tape?
Yes, friends, this is the way Obama care saves money. It doesn't pay for alot of necessary medical care, so hospitals and Dr's will go out of business, and you won't have anywhere to go for care--unless you live close to a big city. Since he's cutting reimbursements by $716 BILLION DOLLARS, that means Medicare doesn't need that money. This is his reasoning behind taking $716 BILLION DOLLARS from Medicare in order to put his plan into place. AND DON'T BE FOOLED!! That money is not going to pay for better benefits for you. It's going to pay the salaries of all the new Federal auditors he's hired to go through every word of every patient chart and every medical bill looking for more ways to cut reimbursement, and it'll go to pay for the coverage of the people in the states he granted waivers to, so their Senators would vote for his plan.

[notreich]

Romney claims so-called Obama-care cut Medicare to pay for Obama-care (actually called The Affordable Care Act). But Obama-care is Medicare, which the Democrats created and have always supported. But the Republicans are always trying to cut it (except at election time) and these days want to completely phase it out as is clearly outlined in Romney's running mate's plan -- The Ryan Plan.

[eroteme2]

Dubious? Of course it is. Like everything else Romney says. For confirmation call PBS and/or NPR.

[purplestates]

Governor Romney says "Mr. Obama cuts the payments that go to Medicare by $700 billion and he uses that to pay for Obamacare."

But where is this idea that the president's health care plan guts billions of dollars from Medicare coming from?

A Congressional Budget Office report says "If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, "[s]pending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013-2022 period."

But that same CBO report says keeping "Obamacare" would not mean a $716 billion decrease in Medicare funding. The cost of Medicare would continue to rise, just not as rapidly. The CBO says this money - Democrats call it savings, Republicans call it cuts - would be achieved mostly through cutbacks in payments to providers and by changes to payment rates in private Medicare plans.

The Romney campaign argues all of this will ultimately lead to reduced access to health care.

"The fact is that he reduces services to Medicare beneficiaries currently on the package," Gov. Sununu claims in my interview with him yesterday on "Starting Point."

Independent fact checker Factcheck.org says that's not true. The site says:

"The law stipulates that guaranteed Medicare benefits won't be reduced, and it adds some new benefits, such as improved coverage for pharmaceuticals."

Senior citizen advocacy group AARP, which generally opposes any policies that would negatively affect seniors, tells its members this:

"The health care law strengthens Medicare by protecting and improving your guaranteed benefits and cracking down on waste, fraud and inefficiency. "

If Romney repeals the ACA, it would bring back the Medicare-doughnut hole and have seniors pay 50% more for their prescription drug and health prevention services. Also, Romney would eliminate 8 years Medicare life that Mr. Obama instilled it into the program.

Romney & Ryan would take $716 billion dollars out of Medicare beneficiary and convert Medicare into a voucher / coupon and have seniors pay $6400 out of pocket and receive less medical services, in order to pay for millionaires and billionaires tax cut. Therefore, Mr. Romney & Ryan Medicare plan do not control cost or extend the life of Medicare but they will bankrupt Medicare in 4 years according to Medicare expert.

http://startingpoint.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/15/fact-check-cutting-through-the-medicare-rhetoric/

[BrianEconomist]

Wow could CBS please hire someone with a background in economics?

1) The Medicare cuts also raise Part B&D premiums - that does affect beneficiaries

2) the Provider cuts of course impact beneficiaries -- the Chief Actuary of Medicare wrote that cutting provider payments will bankrupt 20% of hospitals and result in doctors/hospitals refusing to take Medicare patients. Don't think that has any impact on beneficiaries?

3) CBO has confirmed on multiple occasions that these cuts do NOT help Medicare because all the savings are diverted to ObamaCare. You can't spend the same savings twice!

This is all widely known. CBS, you are embarrassing youtselves.

[Alex Vallas]

The Romney campaign is again distorting the facts. The reductions were made because of cost savings. The whole campaign is way out of control with lies, distortions, insults, and misrepresentations. The biggest benefactors of all this crap are the Ad Agencies that produce attack ads (thanks to the super PACs and the Supreme Court).

[slr0328]

Ryan created his plan after Obamacare became LAW. Ryan and Wyden had to include Obama's $716 billion from Medicare to Obamacare or else the numbers would have been wrong. Under Ryan/Wyden any savings would be fed back into Medicare whereas under Obama's plan any savings to Medicare would be fed into Obamacare NOT Medicare.

Do you really think that when you reduce 3/4 of a trillion from medicare and attribute this to a reduction in fees to hosptials and providers that this will not impact the services to the seniors. Doctors and hospitals are declining services to medicare patients. This is a current trend and seniors are starting to see it first hand. I think what will happen is that seniors through information from their doctors as well as the decline in doctors willing to see Medicare patients will see for themselves how Obama and CBS are not telling the truth.

Romney is running under the Romney plan not the Ryan plan. Romney is utilizing some of the concepts in the Ryan plan but Romney's plan is different. So this whole discussion on the Ryan/Wyden plan is a moot point any way.

[slr0328]

One more comment, just as the liberals mock Romney for saying corporations are people, I mock the liberal loons when they do not have enough brains to realize that the media is a corporations who has special interests and agendas....due to the fact that they wish to make lots of money! The people reading this article and who are agreeing with the article should read the other side to this debate at National Review online and then you can decide who is lying. Check out the CBO reports which backs up Romney's arguments...but those little things are what you call concrete facts and not hyperbole..so that might bore you.

[owldog]

The media is self-serving corporations, but there are some people within it that have integrity. CBS probably has the most, like Rose, Simon, and Bob Schieffer

[Tom0686]

You must have been really bored, because the CBO actually confirms what Obama did with the medicare cuts and what they mean for savings, just like this article says. What's really missing, is that Ryan had to change his plan to make his plan nearly the same as Obama's because just a few months ago, his plan ended medicare before his new revised version. Instead of deamdning others read the rpint, you either jsut didn't care about it, or jsut posting anything anti_Obama.

Fact, the Ryan plan, kills ACA and then make changes to medicare similar to what Obama already has gotten done. The problem with that is, that the expenditure goes up faster than Obama's does, since the Ryan Plan is not holding providers to certain costs and not killing the subsidies to insurance providers. Why we were subsidizing them in the first place is crazy. Ryan 's new plan would take away Medicare in the future for anyone 55 or under, though he now says he would leave Medicare as an option, but only for political purposes. If he says it would be a option, then Nearly everyone would just stick with medicare and nothing would change, and our gov spending keep going up, something anathema to GOP thinking these days.

[berni21-2009]

I wish that someone would invent a 'Shock Collar' that the politicians would wear during their campaign that would 'shock' them when ever they tell a lie! Then we would know who is lying and who is telling the truth. Chances are that all of them would be 'shocked' because none of them know how to tell the truth! In my opinion the American people SHOULD vote everyone in office OUT and put people in there that ARE for the PEOPLE, and not their wallets!

[retiredgustav]

There ain't enough electricity in the world to power a collar like that.

[owldog]

Romney and Ryan, committed corporate oligarchs, are angry because their insurance company patrons are losing billions from the ACA canceling "Medicare Plus" which is a taxpayer-subsidized value-added profit-making invention of the corporate insurance sector.

These guys prey on ignorance. Everyone I know voting for Romney and Ryan are politically illiterate and ignorant of current events and facts. They blindly vote on their past "faith" in conservatism, think people are poor because they deserve to be, and believe all the boldface lies these Neo-con guys tell.

[peter_out]

A third of ObamaCare is funded out of Medicare. Obama said so and defended the decision on a nationally televised interview in 2009, The dollar figure going around out there to my ear has ranged from $556 Billion to $743 Billion. Yesterday Paul Ryan corrected a talk radio host and confirmed the figure is $716 Billion.

[owldog]

Paul Ryan is either twisting the truth, lying, or misinformed. This "savings" is a combination of cutting Medicare plus and a massive anti-fraud compaign (detailed on a past 60 minutes piece) which has needed to be done for decades.

Calling is "cutting Medicare" is typical of the low-life neo-conservative distortion of reality.