Welcome, Secretary Sebelius. I’ve enjoyed working with you during the President’s first term and am very pleased that you have decided to continue where some have fallen away.
The job ahead of you is definitely daunting. Implementing the Affordable Care Act, on top of managing Medicare and Medicaid, will not be easy. Enrolling millions of people by the end of this year is a Herculean task.
Which is why the leadership and continuity you provide is so critical.
The President’s Budget appears to be an effort to reinvigorate a search for common ground. Unlike our colleagues on the other side, the President has been clear about being willing to tackle tough issues.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean much when the House Republican leadership refuses to engage in a meaningful conversation about shared sacrifice for deficit reduction. And their unwillingness to negotiate is most clear when we talk about healthcare.
Republicans have been unrelenting in their zeal to get rid of the ACA, even though it’s the first serious and successful attempt in the last few decades to curb health costs. It’s projected to reduce the deficit, even with its benefits, by more than a trillion dollars over the next two decades. Despite 33 House votes for repeal, the Supreme Court’s ruling and the Presidential election results, their efforts to destroy the law continue.
We know they won’t get rid of it, and they know they won’t get rid of it-John Boehner even called it “the law of the land," but they also know there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Republicans know that the best way to secure a government that won’t tax or regulate them, is to create a government that can’t do anything. Starve the programs, and people won’t fight for them; cripple the government and no one will understand why we need it.
The Sequester cut eight percent in the program management budget for CMS, a direct hit to ACA implementation efforts. Their budget raises costs for current senior citizens by repealing Medicare improvements, and ends Medicare as we know it for people nearing eligibility by turning it into a voucher program.
And, ironically, CBO says the Republican Medicare voucher proposals would lead to higher national health spending. This isn't clever policy. It doesn't lead to better care. It is neither ethically nor fiscally responsible.
In contrast, our Medicare reforms in the ACA were based on reality not rhetoric. Through our efforts, Medicare’s per-person growth rates are historically low and projected to remain so for the foreseeable future. Solvency was significantly extended. New payment and delivery system reforms will create a program that favors value over volume and helps drive the right care to the right patient at the right time.
This hasn’t been easy. But that’s why I’m glad you’re still here. No one is better suited to this job. You understand the importance and complications of state partnerships. And you’re asking for what you need. $1.5 billion to get uninsured Americans health care, to establish sustainable spending and tackle the number one cause of personal bankruptcies… that’s a bargain.
HHS staff, especially those at CMS, have worked tirelessly to implement changes that overhaul nearly every Medicare payment system. They’re creating a whole new infrastructure on the promises of the ACA, and they’ve done it on a shoestring. We know you don’t have the resources you need and the job has been made infinitely harder by false and misleading attacks from opponents.
Enough is enough. It’s time for my Republican colleagues in Congress to work with us and the Administration to ensure effective implementation of what the American people have demanded: the simpler, more fair health care system established by the Affordable Care Act. I hope today’s conversation is a productive start toward that eventuality, and I look forward to the discussion.
