Obama cutting $716 billion from Medicare

What the CBO is reporting here is that without Obamacare Medicare would be spending an estimated $716 billion more over the next ten years.  The savings come from reducing how much doctors and hospitals get paid.

TheACA made numerous changes to payment rates and payment rules in those programs, established a voluntary federal program for long-term care insurance through the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports(CLASS) provisions, and made certain other changes to federal health programs. In total, CBO estimates that repealing those provisions would increase net federal spending by $711 billion over the 2013–2022 period. (Those budgetary effects are summarized in Table 1. 

Spending for Medicare would increase by an estimated $716 billion over that 2013–2022 period. Federal spending for Medicaid and CHIP would increase by about $25 billion from repealing the noncoverage provisions of the ACA, and direct spending for other programs would decrease by about $30 billion, CBO estimates.  . . .

Of course, Obama just denies that this is the equivalent of reducing benefits.

President Obama on Saturday pushed back at Republican accusations that he “raided” Medicare to fund his signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, and accused Mitt Romney of “overheated rhetoric at election time.” 

“We gave seniors deeper discounts on prescription drugs, and made sure preventive care like mammograms are free without a co-pay,” Obama said in his weekly White House address. “We’ve extended the life of Medicare by almost a decade and I’ve proposed reforms that will save Medicare money by getting rid of wasteful spending in the healthcare system and reining in insurance companies – reforms that won’t touch your guaranteed Medicare benefits. Not by a single dime.” 

Mitt Romney’s campaign has been on the offensive over Medicare since adding Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to the GOP ticket, believing that the budget Ryan authored, which would allow Medicare beneficiaries to choose between traditional Medicare and federal subsidies with which to buy private insurance, could be a liability to their campaign. . . .