Seniors and near-seniors aren’t going to like this: Slate’s Mickey Kaus notes a provision in HarryCare (the Senate health bill) setting up an unelected, Federal Reserve-like panel that could impose cost cuts on Medicare.
[W]hat it seems to say, specifically, is:
–The new 15 member “IMAB”?board makes cost-cutting recommendations if Medicare spending exceeds specific targets.
–Congress can disapprove these changes by passing a bill.
But like other legislation, the president can veto that bill?(and his
veto can be overridden).
–The “fast tracking” provisions Klein discusses apply to the bill disapproving the changes. That is, they make it easier for opponents
of the changes to block them without, say, being filibustered in the
Senate. But they also sharply restrict what a “fast-tracked”
disapproval can do–for example, it can’t?block spending cuts if that
causes cost-reduction targets to be missed. To this extent it’s an “up
or down” vote,?like a base-closing resolution
—Key point: If Congress doesn’t pass the fast-tracked bill, the Secretary of HHS must implement the IMAB panel’s recommendations
–And Congress loses even its fast-track disapproval power
after 2020, unless, by a 60% supermajority,?during a specific window in
the first half of 2017, while standing?on one leg and humming Battle Hymn of the Republic, it passes?a joint resolution discontinuing the whole?process. Correction: The part about standing on one leg and humming doesn’t seem to be in the final bill.
Perhaps a more salient point:
Suppose, say,?the “expert”?IMAB board decrees that the feds won’t pay for routine mammograms for women in their forties. How do you think Congress would react?
