Black Votes To Protect Seniors From Medicare Rationing Board



Washington, D.C. (Thursday, March 22, 2012) — Today, U.S. Representative Diane Black (R-TN), celebrated passage of the Protecting Access to Healthcare Act, a bill that repeals the health care law’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which is a 15 bureaucrat panel in charge of cutting Medicare costs.

“When Nancy Pelosi said that we’d have to pass the health care bill in order to know what’s in it, we could hardly anticipate how right she w as,” said Black.  “When it was revealed that the health care law, which cut $500 billion from Medicare, would achieve savings through this unelected board of 15 called the IPAB, it confirmed the image of a shadowy group ofWashingtonbureaucrats controlling your health care.  The nightmare of the health care law became a reality with IPAB.”

Medicare is already known for its low reimbursement rates for doctors, which have forced many physicians to stop accepting new Medicare patients.  Within the health care law, IPAB is specifically tasked with cutting provider rates even further, which would only makes it harder for seniors to access care.  Additionally, if IPAB deems certain services and procedures as unnecessary, they can simply reimburse doctors at such a low rate that no physician would provide the care. 

“I can’t believe anyone can defend what the IPAB would do to our nation’s seniors,” said Black.  “It is so important to prevent the coming reality that 15 untouchables inWashingtonwill be telling seniors that they cannot get that surgery, or that prescription drug, or that procedure, because we won’t pay for it.  We must get bureaucrats out of the equation when it comes to health care, and restore the doctor-patient relationship.”