More Fake Obamacare Savings Exposed
In case you weren’t watching the HELP Committee hearing before the recess for votes, Sen. Kirk REPEATEDLY asked the head of the Medicare program, Jon Blum, to request a letter from the Medicare actuary regarding the potential savings (or lack thereof) from the Administration’s Partnership for Patients initiative. Blum repeatedly declined to give such a commitment that he would request a formal estimate from the actuary quantifying the Partnership’s actual savings, stating only that he would “consult” the actuary’s office. He also included several hypothetical caveats talking about whether or not the actuary would recognize the savings from the program the Administration assumes. The clear impression from the extended exchange is that the Administration will only request an estimate from the actuary if it aligns with their rhetoric – if it does not, then such an estimate either won’t be requested, or won’t be released publicly.
All this is particularly relevant given the ongoing CLASS Act debacle. As a reminder, the Medicare actuary said on Day One that the program had “terminal problem[s]” – a bit of candor for which the Administration decided to shun him, shutting out his dissenting views from the Administration’s internal deliberations. The actuary who predicted the CLASS program’s failure two years ago is the same actuary whom Mr. Blum did not want to scrutinize about whether the Partnership for Patients will achieve actual savings. How is this behavior consistent with fiscal rectitude from the “most transparent and accountable” Administration?
Last month saw $86 billion in fake Obamacare savings disappear once the CLASS Act charade was exposed for what it was. Given today’s exchange, some must wonder if the Administration is engaging in the exact same type of gamesmanship we saw with the CLASS Act – trumpeting fake savings that will never happen, and circumventing non-partisan analysts to achieve partisan political goals.