On the recordNovember 10, 2011
This booklet, which will be available on coburn.senate.gov and barrasso.senate.gov to every Medicare patient out there, explains what has actually happened to Medicare in the last year and a half. It explains that $530 billion has been cut out of Medicare. It explains the physician reimbursement cuts were not addressed when we addressed health care and, consequently, a 27-percent cut is coming if Congress doesn't change that. It explains that Medicare Advantage--both the options and the number of people eligible for that--has been taken away by the Affordable Care Act. It explains that the CLASS Act was put in to save money, but it won't, and it has now been abandoned by the administration. The fact is there is an independent payment advisory board, whose sole purpose is to cut payments for Medicare procedures and supplies and drugs to save money--even when that will instigate the loss of available drugs. Finally, it creates a $10 billion trust fund for an innovation center that is a smokescreen for a rationing board very similar to the IPAB. I want Dr. Barrasso to go over the Medicare cuts now, if he will.
