Obamacare Cuts Medicare Advantage Benefits…but Conceals it Before the Election

DO SENIORS KNOW WHAT IS COMING?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Oct. 1, 2012) — The implementation of Obamacare which was upheld in part by the U.S. Supreme Court in June was set to diminish Medicare Advantage plans, which are privately-run, by $7.4 billion beginning next year.  To date, government “bonuses” generated by a “demonstration project” have largely offset a planned increase for those enrolled in the plan, many of which will take effect next year.

Medicare was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 30, 1965.  There is no clause in the U.S. Constitution‘s enumerated powers which authorizes Congress to enact health care programs.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has reported that those enrolled in Medicare Advantage will see “higher premiums and lower benefits” and blasts the demonstration project, which plans to spend $8.35 billion over the next decade.  Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Subcommittee Chairman James Lankford have stated that the money spent on the demonstration project was “outside of the Department’s lawful authority” and have requested documentation on the expenditure.

Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services reports that Medicare Advantage enrollment has increased since Obamacare was passed in March 2010, with lower premiums and prescription programs “strengthened.” Providers are encouraged to offer more benefits to enrollees in order to increase their “star” rating established by the government.

Sebelius has been accused of “misleading the public” about the effect of Obamacare on Medicare Advantage.

Beginning in 2013, the Medicare tax on those with “higher incomes” will rise to to fund the Medicare Part A Trust Fund.  Overall, the health care bill seeks to reduce Medicare spending, which the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has predicted will adversely affect low-income seniors, particularly those in rural areas.

The Government Accountability Office has described the demonstration project as being “undermined by high estimated costs and design shortcomings,” recommending that the plan be “canceled.”

Issa has said that he will issue a subpoena for the documents requested from Sebelius on the demonstration program, calling it “a conspiracy to hide the impact” of the legislation from seniors until after the November 6 election.

Purportedly intended to test improvement in the “performance” of Medicare Advantage plans with continued bonuses from the federal government (page 12), the GAO has determined that “it will not be possible to isolate the effects of the demonstration from other MA payment and policy changes,” among other objections (page 34).  The Center for Medicare & Medicaid disagreed, stating that the demonstration program “supports our national strategy to improve the delivery of health care services, patient health outcomes, and population health” (page 36).

An analyst who predicted that seniors’ health care would not be affected adversely by Obamacare stated last December that the mandate that health insurers must spend 80-85% of the premiums they take in on actual health care or issue rebates to consumers would ” lead to the death of large parts of the private, for-profit health insurance industry.”  Atty. Van Irion agrees, stating that the rebate requirement “ends capitalism.”

Obamacare has created 159 new entities to carry out various parts of the bill.  After promising Card. Timothy Dolan in a face-to-face meeting at the White House that religious institutions would be exempt from a mandate to provide contraception against their beliefs, the bill allowed a one-year exemption which expires in January, at which time employers which provide health coverage must include contraceptives and abortifacients at no cost to the subscriber.

An adviser to Obama has stated that “death panels” will be necessary to sustain Obamacare, meaning that health care will be rationed as it is in communist and socialist countries.

Is that what people who voted for Obama in 2008 wanted?

Sebelius claims that the government has a “stronger bargaining position” since Obamacare was passed which has kept Medicare Advantage plans’ costs from rising.  She has reportedly delayed a response to the House Oversight Committee regarding the documentation it requested.  Despite a determination that Sebelius violated the Hatch Act by actively campaigning for Obama in her capacity as a cabinet member, she continued to speak at campaign events for Obama, purportedly in her “personal capacity.”  However, a New Hampshire newspaper identified her as “Health and Human Services Secretary.”

Sebelius is not the only lawbreaker in the Obama regime.  Putative Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes “for several years,” and Eric Holder has failed to prosecute a clear case of voter intimidation against “his people,” the New Black Panthers.  Obama’s United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice lied to the American people when she insisted that the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya which killed four Americans was a reaction to a low-budget video created by a convicted felon who uses aliases, as does Obama.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined Rice in condemning the video rather than conceding that the attacks were terrorist in nature.  A judge described the filmmaker as having a “lengthy pattern of deception.”

Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has overseen the loss of hundreds of jobs due to choking new environmental regulations; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is closely associated with socialists and communists; and the former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Cass Sunstein, believes that animals have the right to sue human beings.  Sunstein resigned in August to return to Harvard Law School.

Some have suggested that a conspiracy was launched to propel Obama into the White House, as his college transcripts and applications, school records and other personal information have been kept from public scrutiny.  The long-form birth certificate which the White House released on April 27, 2011 has been determined to be a “computer-generated forgery” along with his Selective Service registration card.  His short-form birth certificate has also been labeled a forgery.  Obama’s Social Security number originated in Connecticut, where he never lived nor worked.

Obama has been associated with Marxists, 1960s radicals, communist activist Frank Marshall Davis, and civil rights activist Malcolm X.

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“A government big enough to give you everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have — Thomas Jefferson