Infographic: Strengthening Medicare

Fighting Medicare fraud has long been a top priority for President Obama. Today, we are releasing a new infographic that describes how the Affordable Care Act -- the new health care law -- is helping the Obama Administration crack down on Medicare fraud and make Medicare stronger. The new infographic shows how the law increases penalties for criminals who commit fraud and provides new enforcement tools to stop fraud and save taxpayers money.

We are committed to using these new tools to fight Medicare and other health care fraud, and we are getting results: The Administration’s anti-fraud efforts recovered $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars last year, the second year recoveries hit this record-breaking level. Total recoveries over the last three years were $10.7 billion. Prosecutions are way up, too: the number of individuals charged with fraud increased from 797 in fiscal year 2008 to 1,430 in fiscal year 2011 -- a more than 75 percent increase.

Just last week, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice announced "a nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in seven cities has resulted in charges against 107 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $452 million in false billing." And on Monday, the Departments announced that, as a part of their Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team initiative, they had resolved an investigation into a pharmaceutical company’s unlawful promotion of a prescription drug. The Justice Department reported that, "the resolution – the second largest payment by a drug company -- includes a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $700 million and civil settlements with the federal government and the states totaling $800 million."

The infographic also shows how the Affordable Care Act is making Medicare stronger and providing new benefits. For example:

    32.5 million people with Medicare received at least one free preventive service thanks to the health care law.

    People with Medicare who hit the prescription drug donut hole have already saved $3.4 billion on their prescription drugs.

    By 2021, the average person with Medicare will save nearly $4,200 thanks to the new health care law.

You can learn more about these efforts and our work to implement the Affordable Care Act by visiting whitehouse.gov/healthreform.

ICYMI Chairman Priebus: “Obama’s New Debt Record: Why We Can’t Afford a Second Term”

Excerpts from Red State

By Reince Priebus

March 19, 2012       

"As of today, the president who promised to cut the deficit in half has now racked up more new debt than any of his predecessors-and in less time.

"In 2008, Obama said 'I don't want to wake up four years from now and find out that our children's future was mortgaged by another mountain of debt.' But four years later, that's exactly what's he's waking up to.

"Instead of cutting the deficit in half, as promised, the president did the opposite. He created four record budget deficits-$1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, $1.3 trillion in 2011, and it is projected to reach $1.3 trillion in 2012.

"What have we gotten in return? A weak economy. A bloated government. A failed $831 billion stimulus. A job-killing healthcare bill. Loans to failed companies like Solyndra. An embarrassing credit downgrade.

"Today, the debt sits at $15.5 trillion and is greater than the U.S. GDP. Under Obama's budget, by the end of 2022, the total federal debt will reach $25.9 trillion...

"During the 2008 campaign, President Obama called adding $4 trillion to the debt 'irresponsible.' More memorably, he added, 'It's unpatriotic.'

"If $4 trillion in eight years is 'unpatriotic,' what is $4.9 trillion in three years?...

"In his Fiscal Year 2013 budget, the president has no comprehensive plan to cut the deficit. It called for more spending on top of more taxes. He has no plan to save Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid-the major drivers of the debt...

"We can't afford to 'spend more,' and we cannot afford a second term of Barack Obama...

"Be sure to watch and share the RNC's new video, 'Mountain of Debt.'"

Click Here To Read The Full Op-Ed.

Obama Abandons Medicare

President Obama and Democrats claim to be committed to “protecting” seniors. But their policies fail to protect the essential Medicare program. It is yet another broken promise by the president. Once again this week, President Obama ignored a legal requirement to produce a plan to strengthen Medicare – the fourth straight year he has failed to put a plan forward. And reports indicate Democrats in the Senate have no plans to strengthen Medicare because it would be “giving away the biggest [political] advantage” Democrats have had “in some time.”

 

The failure of the President’s health care law to strengthen Medicare is a prime example of Democratic hypocrisy. A close look at provisions in the law reveal how it’s fiscal gimmicks and centralized control undermine the Medicare program, harming seniors in the process.

 

Millions Lose Their Current Coverage

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the president’s health care law will cut a total of $202.3 billion from Medicare Advantage plans. These plans deliver a range of health care options to more than 12 million seniors, one-quarter of those enrolled in the Medicare program. One recent study demonstrated that the law will cause Medicare Advantage plan enrollment to be cut in half by 2017. In addition to enrollment being cut, seniors’ choice of health care plans will be cut by two-thirds.

 

The Health Care Law Hurts Medicare’s Long-Term Solvency

Obama Administration actuaries have confirmed that the president’s health care law will increase overall health spending by $311 billion. The increased spending further exacerbates the long-term trends that have placed the Medicare program in financial trouble.

 

The president’s health care law uses Medicare savings not to strengthen Medicare, but to fund new entitlements. The CBO stated the law “would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.” The non-partisan Medicare actuary confirmed that Medicare reductions in the law “cannot be simultaneously used to finance other federal outlays and to extend the [Medicare] trust fund.” Even Speaker Pelosi admitted this problem in November, when she said in an interview that “we took half a trillion dollars out of Medicare in…the health care bill,” to pay for other program spending.

 

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DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Statement on Mitt Romney’s Comments on Entitlements

By DNC Press

Following Mitt Romney’s comments on Friday in Iowa that he did not understand the difference between entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid until he got into government, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman released the following statement:

“One has to wonder how Mitt Romney thinks he can represent American workers, their families and seniors when his concern for the poor and the middle class comes across like an afterthought. A clear example of this was when he admitted today that he didn’t understand the difference between entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid until he got into government some three or four decades after they were established.

“Perhaps no one should be surprised that Mitt Romney was well into middle age and had begun a new career in politics before he bothered to learn about Medicare and Medicaid. After all, prior to that, Romney was too busy as a corporate buyout specialist laying off workers, shipping jobs overseas and bankrupting companies for his own profit to be bothered with the problems facing working Americans and their families.

“There is not one thing in Mitt Romney’s entire history that shows one bit of concern for middle-class Americans. To the contrary, just as he was as a Governor, Mitt Romney as president would be a disaster for seniors and folks trying to make ends meet.”

An Agreement Democrats Can Support

By Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday, August 01, 2011

Last night, President Obama announced a compromise agreement to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt for the first time in history – an unprecedented event that would cause economic pain to families all across our country. But last night’s bipartisan agreement does more than avert a crisis – it guarantees that America will continue to honor its obligations to our seniors and the most vulnerable, and it lays out a path to balanced deficit reduction that will include revenue increases. So while no one got everything they wanted in this deal, this is a compromise that Democrats can support.

First and foremost, this agreement means that we won’t default on our debt for the first time in our nation’s history and it dispenses with the issue of the debt ceiling until 2013. Therefore, this agreement guarantees that Republicans cannot hold our economy hostage again over the next 18 months with the threat of a catastrophic default hanging over our heads. That’s a sharp contrast with Speaker Boehner’s bill, which would have left a cloud of uncertainty hanging over our economy with Republicans again trying to use the prospect of default to extract unacceptable cuts to critical programs like Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.

In addition, the agreement announced by President Obama protects important investments in America’s future, including aid for college students. We can’t afford to stop investing in our future to balance America’s checkbook today, and this agreement makes sure we won’t. Similarly, it guarantees that Social Security, Medicare benefits, and Medicaid will not be gutted to pay for deficit reduction. Given Republicans’ apparent determination to end Medicare as we know it, that should come as a great relief to seniors across the country.

Finally, the agreement sets out a process by which America can get its fiscal house in order – not by balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class, but by coming to a balanced agreement that includes revenue-increasing tax reforms. President Obama has made it clear that the time for such reforms has come, and this agreement includes a powerful enforcement mechanism that will incentivize Republicans to join with Democrats to achieve a deficit reduction deal by the end of 2012.

Now, I’m sure that despite the many positive elements of this agreement, there are still those who would say that it’s just not good enough. Those people should know that the alternative at this late date would be default, from which catastrophic economic consequences would surely flow. There are no other deals on the table, and given Republicans’ intransigence, no other deals at this late date were possible. However, avoiding default, lifting the debt ceiling through 2012, eliminating the economic uncertainty that repeated fights over the debt ceiling would have caused, protecting Social Security,Medicare and Medicaid and putting in place an enforceable process for balanced deficit reduction with new tax revenues are all results that would not have come about if not for the leadership of President Obama and Democratic leaders and have resulted in an agreement that Democrats can be proud to support.

Mobilize to Stop Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security

By Billy Wharton, Co-Chair Socialist Party USA

On May 1, 2003 then President George W. Bush emerged from a fighter jet on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to make his famously absurd "mission accomplished" speech.  Today's announcement of an agreement on a budget deficit package provides current President Barack Obama with his own "mission accomplished" moment.  Much like that of Bush, Obama's completed mission will lead to mass suffering and more than a few deaths.  Bush's victims were Iraqis and the American soldiers sent to kill them.  Obama's will be poor, working class and elderly Americans cut off from vital social programs as a result of budget cuts.

Since his election in 2008, Socialists have been clear about what the Obama administration represented.  We often referred to him as a "hedge-fund Democrat."  This tag was… (Read on)

Source: Socialist Party USA. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The Republican Plan: Dodge, Duck, and Dismantle

By Brad Woodhouse, DNC Communications Director

Next week on the House floor, Republicans will vote on legislation that would raise the debt ceiling with impractical and irresponsible conditions. Instead of introducing a serious approach with realistic policy goals, the GOP is turning to political grandstanding – the "plan" they've offered would undercut economic growth and hamper critical programs that benefit American families.

The Republican bill, called the “Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011” (H.R. 2560), should be more aptly called “dodge, duck, and dismantle.”

It’s a measure that would curb investment in economic necessities like education, clean energy, and research and development – it’s the Ryan Republican budget on steroids. More specifically, this bill could:

•Slash clean-energy investment by 70 percent;

•Cut education resources by 25 percent;

•Eliminate health coverage for 50 million people, including folks with disabilities and low-income children;

•Jack up seniors’ Medicare out-of-pocket costs by an average of $6,400 per year;

•Slash Social Security benefits by as much as $3,000 per year for an average recipient.

Additionally, the GOP plan would arbitrarily limit federal spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Though a random spending cap may be in vogue for Republicans, the timing reeks of political opportunism and challenges the constitutionality of even their own proposals.

President Obama’s predecessor, President Bush – with the help of current Republican leadership – grew federal spending to nearly 25 percent from 19.1 percent of GDP between 2002 and 2009. Politifact.com commented that federal spending during that period was “higher than it [had] been in any year since 1949 -- 60 years prior.”

If that weren’t enough, even the Republican-passed budget from this year and its “draconian cuts to Medicare and Medicaid” would be unconstitutional under a balanced budget amendment.

Furthermore, the GOP bill creates a false choice between government default and passing a balanced budget amendment.  Just as President Obama noted last week, Congress shouldn’t need a constitutional amendment to do its job.

The President’s opposition to a balanced budget amendment is echoed by a coalition of 246 advocacy and progressive-minded organizations.

In a Statement of Administration Policy, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reiterates the President’s position:

“The President has proposed a comprehensive and balanced framework that ensures we live within our means and reduces the deficit by $4 trillion, while supporting economic growth and long-term job creation, protecting critical investments, and meeting the commitments made to provide economic security to Americans no matter their circumstances. H.R. 2560 is inconsistent with this responsible framework to restore fiscal responsibility and is not an appropriate method of reducing the Nation’s deficits and debt. The administration is committed to working with the Congress on a bipartisan basis to achieve real solutions.”

If Republicans move forward with their plan instead of seeking a bipartisan compromise, the President announced that he would veto it.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons