Dear Policy Patriots -

Would the Sheriff of Mayberry Mislead You About ObamaCare? Alas, yes. In a $700,000 advertisement, Andy Griffith recently proclaimed the benefits of ObamaCare. What he fails to say in this taxpayer-funded is that ObamaCare’s Medicare spending cuts will be ten times larger than the new benefits it provides to seniors. In fact, Factcheck.org, a project of the non-partisan Annenberg Public Policy Center, decried the ad as misleading, concluding, “Currently, about 1 in every 4 Medicare beneficiary is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. For many of them, the words in this ad ring hollow, and the promise that “benefits will remain the same” is just as fictional as the town of Mayberry was when Griffin played the local sheriff.”

HHS Secretary Insists on ‘Double Counting’. On Monday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius hosted a conference call to discuss a new report on the health law’s impact on Medicare. Questioned about the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) chief actuary’s claim that the Medicare spending reductions in the law “cannot be simultaneously used to finance other federal outlays and to extend the [Medicare] trust fund,” Sebelius responded by attempting to claim the savings twice, once for Medicare and again for new spending.

Sebelius’s approach, known in policy circles as ‘double-counting’, is patently inaccurate, as CMS and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have repeatedly said. The hard truth for ObamaCare is that can either shore up Medicare or expand coverage for younger workers, but it can’t do both. Ms. Sebelius should first check her math-and then level with America’s seniors.

The Future of Medicare. If you’re a Medicare beneficiary, you need to pay attention to the toll that ObamaCare will take on your health care. Although some benefits exist, the reality is that the costs imposed on America’s elderly and disabled are far greater. As a group, seniors will be more affected by the new health reform law than any other population. Consider the following statistics:

• Bottom Line Cost. More than half of the cost of the new health system will be paid for by $523 billion in Medicare spending cuts over the next ten years.
• ObamaCare Gives A Little, Takes A Lot Away. The Medicare cuts in ObamaCare are ten times greater than the benefits ObamaCare provides to Medicare beneficiaries.
• Hospitals in Trouble. Experts predict that one in seven hospitals will experience financial distress because of ObamaCare’s Medicare spending cuts.
• Increased Demand on the Health Care System. The new health benefits provided by ObamaCare will create new incentives for millions of Americans to demand more health care. But without more doctors to provide that care, the result will be millions of patients flooding doctors’ offices, making access significantly more difficult for America’s elderly and disabled.
• Fewer Subsidies. ObamaCare eliminates tax policies that encourage employers to provide post-retirement prescription drug coverage, currently worth $665 per retiree. For instance, S&P 500 companies will face losses of $4.5 billion. As a result, many companies are expected to completely do away with their retiree drug plans.
• Not Enough Doctors. ObamaCare failed to fully fund the expansion of health coverage, further stretching already-limited health resources. For instance, if everyone on Medicare took advantage of the free annual checkup, the U.S. would need 23,000 additional doctors in order to meet the demand.
• Future Cuts. Cuts today do not prevent cuts in the future. Quite the opposite, in fact. ObamaCare empowers a newly-created bureaucracy, called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, to recommend future spending cuts to limit the growth in Medicare spending.

Where Is AARP? AARP claims to represent seniors, but they fully support these detrimental policies in ObamaCare. As far as we can tell, AARP supports ObamaCare because they stand to profit from it. That’s fine, but we don’t think AARP should disguise its motives as something that will help seniors, when in fact it will hurt seniors.

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Jeanette Nordstrom

National Center for Policy Analysis