The Affordable Care Act (ACA) commonly referred to as Obamacare added more benefits to Medicare than any other single issue within the law. The law contains about 165 provisions affecting Medicare, according to a Medicare Trustee’s report.
Congress is now faced with a dilemma on how to repeal Obamacare and still retain those Medicare benefits already granted through the ACA.
During a June 20, 2016 interview with columnist Marc Thiessen of the Washington Post, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump said, “Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We can’t do that. And, it’s not fair to the people who have been paying in for years.”
Trump even said drug prices should be negotiated to lower costs because politicians are “beholden to the pharmaceutical industry with their campaign contributions.”
He also called for a change in U.S. law to allow importation of drugs from foreign countries including Canada to save Americans money.
These statements made by Trump prior to the election are in direct conflict with actions taken by House Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Trump’s selection to head the Department of Health and Human Services with a budget of $1.45 billion dollars of which 52% is allocated for Medicare and 34% to Medicaid.
Price introduced legislation in 2015 and 2016 to repeal Obamacare and eliminate Medicare benefits granted under the ACA including free screenings for heart disease, diabetes and cancer, including breast and colorectal cancers, along with free flu and pneumonia vaccinations.
Also included was a proposed elimination of the “doughnut hole” benefit in the Part D prescription program. Instead of paying 100 percent of drug costs while in the “doughnut hole” prior to the ACE, under current law, by 2020 beneficiaries will pay 25% of their brand-name and generic drugs after they meet their deductible regardless of how much out of pocket spending incurred during the year.
Stacy Sanders, federal policy director at the Medicare Rights Center said, “These Medicare benefit improvements under the ACA have not been at the top of the list of possible cuts when the Affordable Care Act is replaced, but repeal without replacement could nonetheless put them at risk.”
A poll released last Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation Health News finds that “75 percent of Americans say they either want lawmakers to leave Obamacare alone, or repeal it only when they can replace it with a new health care law.”
As more of the 57 million Medicare beneficiaries learn their benefits could be at risk, the poll numbers not to repeal until a new health care law is in place will only increase.
