Marilyn Tavenner, the president’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was already hoarse when she began her speech at the Care Innovation Summit in Washington D.C. today. However, that did not stop Tavenner, the agency’s acting administrator, from delivering a laundry list of the 2010 health law’s benefits and achievements, including a particularly personal one.
Tavenner, acting administrator of CMS, speaks at a Care Innovation Summit event Thursday. (Photo by Jessica Marcy/KHN)
An estimated 2.5 million young adults have gained coverage through the law’s under-26 provision, and “one of those happens to be my daughter,” a type-1 diabetic, Tavenner said. “I have personally benefited from this provision.”
Tavenner will likely make some of the same arguments for the law and CMS initiatives when – or if – she encounters a grilling at her yet-to-be scheduled Senate confirmation hearing. She took over the agency’s top job after previous chief Donald Berwick, a recess appointee whose nomination never went through the confirmation process, stepped down in December. Tavenner made a point to pause and give Berwick credit for his work at CMS.
Among the other health law highlights that made Tavenner’s list were the funds provided to close Medicare’s prescription drug “doughnut hole;” the expanded coverage of preventive services for Medicare beneficiaries; and the creation of state-run, high-risk insurance pools, which she described as “one of the things I’m most proud of.”
She also encouraged the more than 1,000 attendees at Thursday’s summit to look ahead. Many health law provisions go live in 2014, and “24 months is not a lot of time to get a lot of things done,” Tavenner said. “That is where the Innovation Center becomes so important.”
Two of CMS’s three top priorities will be aided by the Innovation Center: developing public/private partnerships and implementing delivery system reforms. The latter category includes efforts to find a permanent fix to Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula — the “doc fix” — which “seems so elusive many times,” Tavenner said.
Richard Gilfillan, the center’s director, announced the release of a report describing their work thus far.
“We’ve had a very busy first year,” Gilfillan said, listing initiatives like accountable care organizations, bundled payment projects and the “innovation advisors” program.
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After hearing arguments, if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act in June of 2012, if senior citizens lose donut hole relief, if students lose access to their parent’s policy, if insurance companies go back to charging whatever rates they want and go back to rescinding policies if you get sick, then Republicans are in deep trouble! Republicans had better have a health care plan that replaces all the above. Why? Because, if they don’t, they risk losing the November 2012 election. Americans are beginning to really like the new features of Obamacare. They like getting preventive services included at no extra cost. They like that insurance companies must spend at least 80 percent of their premium dollar on health care services. They like knowing that if they like the policy they have, they can keep it. Republicans have painted themselves into a corner. If the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare and Republicans don’t have a replacement plan as good or better. They are toast in November!
“If they like the policy they have, they can keep it.” Who is writing this Goebbels garbage? I have been working for 12 years for the same company and only when the Obamas came to power did everything change with my health insurance. The best policy I had ever was wiped out last year-they offered only 2 choices “3,000 deductible coverage and “double the premium choice with a 1,000 deductible”–not only that but any employee who opted for the most expensive had to submit to intrusive lab tests, screenings and x-rays.
Tavenner’s a tool who will implement Obama’s Soviet -style universal healthcare and destroy the best healthcare system in the world. Everyone buying this propaganda, just like many other countries have done, better get ready to wait months for a doctor’s appointment, surgeries, and CT’s, MRI’S which people like Berwick says are a waste of money will only be offered to those like Obama and Tavenner who have sold this country out. And if Ms Tavenner wants to make the personal political she better be ready to be vetted.
The Soviet health care system was famous for its privately owned health insurance companies and for its high-tech private providers. Or, maybe not but it sure does sound rhetorical to run on about the Soviets.