On behalf of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, Howard “Kill the Bill’ Dean writes in the Wall Street Journal that we should repeal a segment of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) because there’s no way it could possibly work. via NYMag
IPAB is one of the reforms in the Affordable Care Act. It’s a board of experts that recommends ways to save money in Medicare if the program’s expenses run above a certain level.
Dean argues that IPAB can’t work and thus that “getting rid of the IPAB is something Democrats and Republicans ought to agree on.” He’s Howard Dean, and he represents the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party! He also represents McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, a Washington lobbying firm.
Dean’s op-ed notes his affiliation in the tagline, but it doesn’t say what his clients think about IPAB. For that matter, Dean has refused to disclose which firms he’s representing on behalf of McKenna Long & Aldridge.
From the Wall Street Journal
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has indicated that the IPAB, in its current form, won’t save a single dime before 2021. As everyone in Washington knows, but less frequently admits, CBO projections of any kind—past five years or so—are really just speculation. I believe the IPAB will never control costs based on the long record of previous attempts in many of the states, including my own state of Vermont.
If Medicare is to have a secure future, we have to move away from fee-for-service medicine, which is all about incentives to spend more, and has no incentives in the system to keep patients healthy. The IPAB has no possibility of helping to solve this major problem and will almost certainly make the system more bureaucratic and therefore drive up administrative costs. [...]
The IPAB will cause frustration to providers and patients alike, and it will fail to control costs. When, and if, the atmosphere on Capitol Hill improves and leadership becomes interested again in addressing real problems instead of posturing, getting rid of the IPAB is something Democrats and Republicans ought to agree on.
‘As everyone knows, the CBO is bunk.’
Thanks, Howard Dean.
The Independent Payment Advisory Board (“death panels”) is a key element of the law that’s designed to limit the growth in cost of Medicare. The IPAB will also prevent Obamacare from adding to the deficit. And it achieves this not by rationing healthcare or killing granny, but by recommending more efficient or cost effective treatments with proven track records to reduce waste.
While Dean alleges that the IPAB will hurt “providers and patients alike,” the truth is his only real or well-founded concern is that it may reduce the profits of his employer. He also argues that it will “make the system more bureaucratic,” but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The board’s proposal (or that of the Secretary) may not include any recommendation to ration health care, increase Medicare premiums or cost-sharing, cut Medicare benefits, or restrict eligibility. It must focus exclusively on proposals for achieving savings in the payment and delivery of health care services — not shifting costs to beneficiaries.
The board’s recommendations will go into effect automatically unless Congress passes, and the President signs, legislation to modify or overturn them. Congress may consider, on a fast-track basis, an alternative proposal that achieves the same amount of savings; if the alternative proposal achieves a smaller amount of savings, approval requires a three-fifths vote of the Senate. If the board recommends changes that the President supports, the President can veto legislation to block them, and as is always the case, a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate would be required to override a veto. [...]
The other major criticism of IPAB is that it will limit beneficiaries’ access to care. This accusation is the opposite of the truth. In fact, if IPAB is repealed, the alternatives are likely to be much worse for Medicare beneficiaries. [...]
Most important, repealing IPAB would fuel pressure to replace the current Medicare guarantee with a system of vouchers or premium support, under which beneficiaries would bear the brunt of efforts to control costs. Premium support would replace Medicare’s guarantee of health coverage with a fixed payment, or voucher, that beneficiaries would use to help them purchase either private health insurance or traditional Medicare.[15] It would achieve budgetary savings by limiting the growth of the voucher to less than the rate of growth of health care costs. As a result, Medicare beneficiaries would have to pay more in premiums or receive less in benefits with each passing year — precisely the outcome that IPAB is directed to avoid.
I would have voted for Howard Dean if he won the nomination in 2004, but I’m glad he didn’t.
Howard Dean is a paid critic of the administration and the Affordable Care Act whose motives are dubious at best.