It perhaps was predictable that the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee’s hearing on the Medicare Advantage program Sept. 21 — the Friday just before the House adjourned till after the November elections — would have a clear political tint to it. While the committee members coming into and out of the 70-minute session did raise significant issues about MA, many of them seemed more interested in making political points and then leaving rather than in listening closely to the witnesses. And the hearing appeared to reaffirm that there is no consensus on what should be the future of the MA program.
Several of the Republicans on the committee were vocal defenders during the hearing of the MA program — but not of the CMS star ratings quality bonus for MA plans demonstration, which of course was developed by the Obama administration using authority in the health reform law. They made a special point of having witness James Cosgrove, director of health care for the Government Accountability Office, repeat GAO’s finding that the demo should be canceled. But they also voiced strong general support for MA, with Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger (R-Calif.) saying “it seems the administration is trying to hide the effect of the [MA payment] cuts” in the reform law with the demo.
Democrats on the committee responded in kind. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), for example, said “our Republican colleagues would like us to believe the sky is falling” regarding MA, when in fact MA plans have increased enrollment steadily since the reform law was enacted.
So where will all this back and forth leave MA when the elections are over? Is the program so demonstrably popular and successful that it can survive no matter what happens in Congress or the presidency? Or has MA become so much a symbol of the differences, as aired in the hearing, between two sides that it will keep getting kicked around till someone wins the game?
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