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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 23, 2014 10:43 AM |
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| From: | Representative Stan Saylor |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | The Promise of Medicare for Seniors Resolution |
| I will be introducing a resolution urging Congress to keep its promise of helping our most vulnerable seniors. My resolution urges Congress to reverse the painful cuts to the Medicare program under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which will hurt the benefits and limit plan choices to our seniors on Medicare. Most of us have been told, or heard constituent stories, about how they or a loved one has purchased health insurance plans on the individual market only to receive a cancellation notice in the mail following the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as Obamacare). These occurrences, for the most part, have received heightened media attention; however, our seniors are being neglected over the havoc that is happening now to Medicare Advantage patients. Those enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans are receiving notices that their provider contracts are being canceled. This means patients who have trusted their primary care physician for years and decades will have to find another doctor or worse. Throughout the many loops and turns of this federal law, in order to fund its increasing costs, the federal law requires the Medicare program to be cut over $716 billion over the next few years, according to the Congressional Budget Office; $154 billion from Medicare Advantage. In short, this move sets up the existing Medicare program to be one of the many funding mechanisms for Obamacare. The cuts from Medicare are not being put back into the program which means these massive payment cuts will impact Medicare benefits, as well as seniors who access those benefits. Because of the proposed cuts already, many Medicare Advantage programs have started to cancel the contracts of providers in order to save money. This pushes them out of Medicare Advantage programs and back into traditional programs that lose the benefit of having such a plan. For other seniors this means they will face higher costs since benefits will be cut and they will be charged a higher cost-share for the services. For the second straight year, health insurers have pushed back and the President reversed proposed cuts to Medicare plans. Reversing these cuts is not the same as repealing them or doing away with the cuts entirely. The reversal does not address the concerns about the financial impact on the millions of seniors who rely upon Medicare every day. I hope you will consider joining me in supporting this resolution. |
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Introduced as HR886