Medicare

I am pro-life. I will never stand by and allow Medicare to be turned into the shadowy rationing bureaucracy to which it is headed under Obamacare.

Obamacare slashes $500 billion from Medicare over the next ten years while the Medicare population will grow from 47 to 67 million. It sets up a panel of unelected bureaucrats called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which will be the ultimate arbiter of what will be reimbursed under Medicare and at what rates. The IPAB is central planning direct from the socialist playbook. This is a betrayal of the promise made to seniors, and is one of the reasons I strongly oppose Obamacare and will fight for its repeal.

In addition to the Obamacare threat, over the past few years, physicians have been declining to take new Medicare patients in greater and greater numbers. The major cause for this decision has been the uncertainty of the Medicare payment formula, and the inability of doctors to operate on the payments authorized under this formula. Congress needs to address this issue finally and ensure that doctors are adequately compensated for their services.

I will also actively support innovative measures to remove duplication, waste, fraud, and abuse from the system.

And I will work to ensure Medicare is there for my generation (the “under 55s”) and generations to come. Unlike the career politicians in Washington, I acknowledge that there are trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities in the Medicare system, and that by 2024 the system faces insolvency. It is wrong not to address this impending crisis, and I will consider all good faith proposals designed to save Medicare for future generations, and will particularly look to models that empower patients, families, doctors and free enterprise and not government bureaucrats.