Max Baucus Said WHAT About Cutting Medicare Advantage?
Chairman Baucus was just down on the floor talking about Secretary Sebelius’ letter of last evening and her allegations about Medicare Advantage. We’ve already rebutted those allegations elsewhere, but I wanted to highlight how Chairman Baucus closed his speech:
I urge all Senators to please don’t cut Medicare Advantage payments. That is just not the right thing to do. Innocent seniors are getting caught in this crossfire here. I’m sure we have to begin to cut federal spending, there is no question about that, but let’s not be so foolhardy and unintelligibly cut Medicare beneficiary (sic) the way that this H.R. [1] does.
Some may find these comments a bit rich, given that the Congressional Budget Office estimate of the health care law showed that Obamacare will CUT Medicare Advantage by at least $135.6 billion, and by over $200 billion once interactions are considered. Conversely, the CBO said the Rehberg de-funding amendment would have ZERO impact on Medicare Advantage, or any part of the Medicare program for that matter. So who’s kidding whom here?