Cornyn Bill Would Eliminate Obamacare's IPAB

Press Release

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has introduced the Protecting Seniors' Access to Medicare Act, a bill that would remove unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats from seniors' personal health decisions by repealing Obamacare's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

"Obamacare is a terribly misguided and fundamentally flawed law that is negatively impacting Texans and Americans across the country. This bill tackles one of the law's most egregious flaws and starts the process of putting health care decisions back in the hands of patients," Cornyn said. "Seniors and their families deserve to be in control of their health care decisions, not at the mercy of a board of unelected bureaucrats who think they know best."

Senator Cornyn noted several additional concerns with the IPAB, including:
The IPAB gives a 15-member board of political appointees the power to make substantial changes to Medicare--without full transparency and accountability to America's seniors and their elected officials.

It gives these unelected appointees critical authority when it comes to seniors' personal health care decisions.

The IPAB is prohibited from making any meaningful structural reforms to Medicare, such as increasing premium costs for wealthier beneficiaries, which would help preserve the program. Instead, its recommendations are essentially limited to provider cuts, which will further exacerbate problems of beneficiary access to physicians.

During Congress' debate over health reform, 75 diverse provider groups raised serious concerns about the IPAB. Their letter stated: "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."

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