WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts joined U.S. Senator Jon Cornyn (R-TX) in introducing a bill to remove unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats from American seniors’ personal health decisions by repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

 “On the hook to find $500 billion in Medicare cuts to pay for the new health care law, IPAB is yet another government body tasked with rationing to contain costs,” Senator Roberts said. “Access to quality care for seniors is threatened by decisions made behind closed doors by unelected and unaccountable government officials.”

 “In true fashion of Obama-Reid-Pelosi hubris, the IPAB is the definition of a government takeover,” said Senator Cornyn. “America’s seniors deserve the ability to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions that affect their Medicare, but IPAB would take that away from seniors and put power in the hands of politically-appointed Washington bureaucrats. This bill to repeal IPAB is just one step towards starting over with real health care reform that empowers patients instead of beltway bureaucrats.”

 The Senators introduced the bill to address problems in the new health care law. After taking $528 billion from the already insolvent Medicare program to create a $2.6 trillion new entitlement, the health care law created an unelected, unaccountable board of bureaucrats to make additional cuts to the Medicare program based on arbitrary global budget targets. The IPAB would empower 15 bureaucrats to make substantial changes to Medicare—without full transparency and accountability to America’s seniors and their elected officials.

 Specific concerns with the IPAB include:

· Product of Politics: While the designers of IPAB contend it will depoliticize the Medicare payment process, the IPAB’s very charter is the product of politics. Special interest groups cut deals with Democrats to specifically exempt hospitals, 28 percent of Medicare's budget, from the IPAB’s ax. Additionally, IPAB simply takes decision-making authority from elected officials and gives it to the President’s political appointees.
· Shirked Responsibility: While IPAB was sold as a mechanism to address entitlement spending, the reality is that IPAB allowed Congress to punt to an unaccountable board the responsibility of fully paying for a budget busting new entitlement program. The history of the $371 billion Sustainable Growth Rate problem has shown that punting budget problems down the road only makes them worse for patients, providers, and taxpayers.
· Fallible Bureaucrats: IPAB’s body of “experts” was modeled in many ways after the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). However, MedPAC doesn’t always get it right, and its recommendations are carefully examined by Congress before legislative action. A news report last year noted that , “The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, created by Congress in 1997, has recommended more than $200 billion in cost cuts in the last year alone that lawmakers have ignored.”
· Jeopardized Access: IPAB has raised significant concerns among a diverse group of health care provider groups. 75 provider groups sent a letter stating their opposition to IPAB that said, “The IPAB reductions would be in addition to the…savings in provider payments already included in health care reform legislation, which could jeopardize both access for Medicare beneficiaries and even infrastructure for the entire health care system.”

 Senator Roberts is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Senate Committee on Finance. During the debate on the health care law, Roberts warned of the potential for further government rationing of care with the creation of the IPAB. He is Co-Chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.

-30-