The new health care law is cutting payments to Medicare Advantage plans. Republican lawmakers predicted that the (cuts) would lead insurers to increase premiums, reduce benefits or pull out of the program. But so far the dire predictions have not been borne out.
On average, the Obama administration said recently, Medicare Advantage premiums will be 4 percent lower in 2012 than in 2011, and (insurers) expect their Medicare enrollment to increase by 10 percent.
Throughout the deficit reduction talks, Democrats insisted that any package be balanced. They entertained the idea of restructuring Medicare as part of a large deficit reduction package that also included tax increases. They (repeatedly) described the budget as a moral document and said they would not balance the budget on the backs of older Americans, children and poor people.
Democrats gave no (indication) that they would accept major Medicare changes in the absence of tax increases.
But other ways of reining in Medicare costs carry their own political risks. Mr. Obama discussed one such proposal — gradually (increasing) the age of eligibility for Medicare — as part of a budget deal that he tried to negotiate over the summer with Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio.
Mr. Obama is counting on a new agency, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, to ensure a sharp reduction in the growth of Medicare (spending) per beneficiary. But he has not nominated anyone to run the agency, which Republicans denounce as a tool for rationing care.