Protecting Patients Who Rely on Medicare and Medicaid

MISSION: The Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights will fight to protect Medicare and Medicaid from drastic cuts that will eliminate medical choices for seniors, restrict access for the poor and disabled, and cause providers to lower the quality of care or completely stop serving Medicare beneficiaries.

The healthcare reform law is funded largely by $500 billion in new tax increases and $500 billion in proposed cuts from the Medicare program.  This includes between $130 and $200 billion in cuts to the Medicare Advantage (MA) program along.  Many healthcare experts suggest that cuts of this magnitude will severely cripple the Medicare and Medicaid programs that already face tremendous deficits.  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Chief Actuary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the MA cuts alone will result in nearly 7 million seniors, many with low incomes, being forced from the MA program they prefer to enroll in.

If Medicare and Medicaid payments and reimbursements to doctors and hospitals are slashed, healthcare providers will be unable to provide the care that patients need.  Already, the country is seeing an increase in the numbers of health providers who are unable to care for patients on Medicare and Medicaid - this will only get worse.  As members of the medical profession, our members will fight vigorously to keep these proposed cuts from occurring.

Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB)
The IPAB is one of the least known and most concerning elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  If enacted as envisioned, the IPAB will have unprecedented power to make sweeping changes to the Medicare program without Congressional approval.  Beginning in 2015, a 15 member panel of unelected bureaucrats will be established with the mandate to cut Medicare spending by $4 billion per year.  These cuts are in addition to the $500 billion discussed above.  Medicare reimbursement rates are currently well below market rates, and will likely get worse as Congress continues to delay a long-term fix to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula.  The IPAB solution will arbitrarily force cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates for some providers while excluding others from its effects.  As a result, there will be more pressure to extract deeper cuts from those areas under the IPAB’s jurisdiction.  The IPAB is required by law to meet certain targeted savings in Medicare and these savings will affect seniors’ access to the latest medical technologies.  CPPR will work to ensure that the IPAB can’t impose cuts in Medicare spending that will affect the quality and access of care for seniors.  We will accomplish this by fighting to either repeal or drastically reform the IPAB before it is implemented.

In today's economy, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid stand to unnecessarily burden the most vulnerable in our society. In fact, these reductions could eliminate access to care for millions of Americans nationwide.   America's future depends on a strong healthcare system. The Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights will fight any cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that will impact the quality of care its beneficiaries need.  Seniors have earned the right to receive high quality healthcare through the Medicare program and we will work aggressively to protect both the quality of care and the solvency of the program.