Obamacare: Cutting Benefits AND Choices for Seniors
Even as the Administration attempts to argue that Obamacare is “giving Americans more freedom in their health care choices,” a new report released this week shows how the law is taking away choices for seniors. Following up on a Heritage Foundation study published last year, this paper examines how Medicare Advantage plan enrollment will decrease across the country. The study finds that Medicare Advantage enrollment will be cut in half by 2017 thanks to Obamacare, and that plan choices will be reduced by two-thirds, with an average of almost 18 fewer MA plans being offered in each county.*
The number of seniors losing their Medicare Advantage plans thanks to Obamacare almost perfectly mirrors the percentage of individuals in employer-sponsored coverage who will lose their pre-Obamacare plan. The Administration’s own estimates revealed that its onerous regulations will force most businesses – half of all employers, and as many as 80% of small businesses – to give up their current plans within the next two years, thus subjecting them to costly new mandates that will increase premiums. Some surveys suggest this number is a low estimate, and that as many as 70% of firms could lose their pre-Obamacare coverage as early as next year.
At a time when liberals are attacking Republicans for wanting to cut Medicare benefits, it’s ironic that the Administration has been forced to use misleading rhetoric and “weasel words” to claim seniors in Medicare Advantage plans will not be harmed by a measure that “saves” $500 billion from the Medicare program – yet “will not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.” And it’s also fittingly ironic – some would argue even Orwellian – that this Administration apparently wants to give seniors “more freedom in their health care choices” by taking most of them away.
* In case anyone was wondering, yes, this study does include the effects of the multi-billion dollar MA demonstration/waiver program announced by the Administration earlier this year, in what many experts have called a politically motivated effort to ensure that Obamacare’s ill effects won’t impact seniors until AFTER the President’s re-election campaign.