Today, March 23, 2012, is the official second anniversary of when the Affordable Care Act was signed by President Obama. Not everyone is celebrating, though. The House of Representatives voted this week to repeal a portion of the ACA.
This week, the House of Representatives, which is Republican-led, voted to pass a bill to repeal a specific portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They voted 223 – 181 to dismantle a 15-member panel that was designed to control costs of the Medicare program. This panel is called the Independent Payment Advisory Board IPAB.
The Republicans like to call the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare”. They also like to call the Independent Payment Advisory Board a “death panel”. The phrase “death panel” sounds terrifying. This is an election year, so it isn’t unusual for political parties to try to rephrase things that their opponents have done into the most frightening phraseology that they can come up with. Not all voters will take the time to do some research, and find out the facts about a situation.
The White House website has facts about the Independent Payment Advisory Board. It is important to note that the IPAB will not even take effect unless Medicare costs grow to quickly. If the efforts to prevent the cost of Medicare from rising too rapidly work, then there would be no need for the IPAB.
The IPAB will include 15 experts (including doctors and patient advocates). Each would be nominated by the President, and would need to be confirmed by the Senate, before they can serve on the IPAB. The purpose of the IPAB is to recommend policies to Congress to help Medicare provide better care at lower costs. Here is an important piece of information about the IPAB:
“IPAB is specifically prohibited by law from recommending any policies that ration care, raise taxes, increase premiums or cost-sharing, restrict benefits or modify who is eligible for Medicare”.
In other words, the IPAB is not a “death panel” designed to restrict the health care that seniors are able to receive, presumably to cause their death. It is also worth noting that Congress would have the power to accept, or to reject, whatever the IPAB recommends.
In order for the repeal of the IPAB, that was voted for by the House of Representatives, to take effect, the bill would have to also be voted for by the Senate. It is expected that the Senate will not vote this bill into law. The Senate is Democrat-led. In early 2011, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the entire ACA. That bill did not get voted into law by the Senate, either.
The decision to vote to repeal the IPAB is largely symbolic. Republicans in the House of Representatives realize that the Senate will never pass this bill. The Republicans are using this effort to make a statement, once again, that they are against the ACA.
The timing is no accident. March 23, 2012, is the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear several hours of oral arguments about certain portions of the Affordable Care Act.
Image by DonkeyHotey on Flickr