Peters Leads Effort to Protect Medicare Advantage -- CMS Announces Cuts Reversed

Press Release

Today, U.S. Representative Gary Peters applauded a decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that runs Medicare, to reverse proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage plans. This week's announcement comes after Peters sent a letter, joined by 203 of his colleagues, to the CMS Administrator last month calling for the cuts to be reconsidered at a time when seniors cannot afford to see their benefits reduced. CMS announced yesterday that it will reject the proposed 2 percent cut in favor of a 0.4 percent payment increase for Medicare Advantage plans.

Peters said: "Seniors in Michigan have worked their whole lives and have earned their Medicare benefits. Cutting Medicare Advantage would have made it harder and more expensive for seniors to get the health care they critically need. The decision to reverse proposed cuts, in favor of a modest increase, will help seniors have access to the doctors they choose and the prescriptions they need, all at a cost they can afford."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded to Rep. Peters' call to reverse the proposed cuts. In a letter, Sebelius wrote that "after careful consideration of feedback like yours, and wanting to make sure that MA plans continued to be high quality, affordable and accessible to beneficiaries who choose them, we have made adjustments to our initial proposal that will provide more stable funding for 2015."

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