Despite endorsing Paul Ryan’s proposal to maintain Obamacare’s $716 billion in Medicare cuts and reduce overall Medicare spending from 7 percent of GDP to 3.5 percent by 2023, Mitt Romney has announced that he would restore the ACA’s reductions — and avoid future Medicare reductions.
“My commitment is, if I become President, I’m going to restore that $716 billion to the Medicare trust fund so that current seniors can know that the trust fund is not being raided and get Medicare on track to be solvent long-term on a permanent basis,” Romney told CBS on Wednesday morning. But in replenishing the funds, Romney would actually be making the program worse off, not better.
The Obamacare savings slow the growth of Medicare over the next decade by, in part: eliminating overpayments to private insurers in Medicare Advantage, reforming provider payments to encourage greater efficiency, tying reimbursements to improvements in economic productivity, and reducing fraud and abuse. The law does not impact patient benefits.
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