Medicare and the new Health Care Law: Separating Fact from Fiction

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl Many seniors recently received a brochure from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about Medicare and the new health-care law. The pamphlet purports to provide accurate information about the new services and benefits to help you and your family now and in the future. In reality, the brochure is a public relations effort by the administration to change the American peoples minds about the new health-care law. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 58 percent of Americans support repeal of the law a view that that has held relatively steady since President Obama signed the bill into law. Americans, particularly seniors, have legitimate and real concerns about the law. Here are the facts about the statements made in the brochure. What the brochure says: These are needed improvements that will keep Medicare strong and solvent. The facts: The law raids Medicare by over half a trillion dollars to pay for a new premium subsidy program that has nothing to do with Medicare. The government cannot simultaneously claim credit for enhancing Medicares solvency while financing a new entitlement program with the same money. Its double-counting, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). What the brochure says: Your guaranteed Medicare benefits wont change whether you get them through Original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan. The facts: Seniors benefits will change. The law guts supplemental Medicare plans known as Medicare Advantage (MA) by $202 billion over 10 years meaning higher premiums, less benefits, and fewer plan choices for seniors. The CBO estimates that the extra benefits currently provided by MA plans will be cut in half. Similarly, Medicares chief actuary the individual who estimates the impact on premiums and benefits concluded that the MA cuts will result in less generous benefit packages. What the brochure says: Your choice of doctor will be preserved. The facts: The law fails to address inadequate physician reimbursement rates that threaten to push doctors out of Medicare. As many as 73 percent of doctors are opting to stop taking new Medicare patients as a result of the low reimbursement rates, while others have stopped seeing Medicare patients altogether, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal. Moreover, Medicares chief actuary concluded that 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, hospices and home health agencies may have to close in the next decade due to the Medicare cuts in the law. What the brochure says: If you enter the Part D donut hole this year, you will receive a one-time, $250 rebate check if you are not already receiving Medicare Extra Help. The facts: Most seniors are not eligible for the rebate check. Earlier this month, President Obama acknowledged that only four million elderly and disabled individuals thats fewer than one in 10 Medicare beneficiaries will receive a $250 check. Moreover, the CBO estimates that seniors will pay higher premiums for prescription drug coverage as a result of the new law. Throughout the long process of passing health-care reform, the administration constantly sought not just to control the message, but to suppress and bully others from speaking the facts. There was the short-lived effort to encourage Americans to send fishy emails about health-care reform to a White House e-mail address. And, then there was the gag order that prohibited Medicare Advantage providers from alerting their customers about potential changes in their coverage. Seniors shouldnt be duped by this latest propaganda. Unfortunately, their coverage will change for the worse unless we repeal the health-care law and replace it with commonsense, market-oriented solutions to increase access and bring down the cost of health-care. Sen. Jon Kyl is the Senate Republican Whip and serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees. Visit his website at www.kyl.senate.gov or his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/senjonkyl.