A group of Republican senators recently introduced the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act. The piece of legislation won't do away with HHS or CMS. The proposal would eliminate just one small group of bureaucrats - the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).
The IPAB was created in the health care reform law last spring, but won't officially come together until 2014. The IPAB will be a 15-member group tasked with creating non-binding proposals "to reduce excess cost growth and improve the quality of care for Medicare" patients. The board's Medicare recommendations would become law unless Congress steps in with their own proposal, but any substitute measure from Congress must have the same budgetary impact, says the law Washington law firm McDermott Will & Emery. The board will take actions when Medicare costs are projected to be unstable, but cannot ration care, raise taxes or premiums, eligibility or benefits, according to the law.
The GOP senators didn't vote for the reform bill and they don't like the idea of an IPAB. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in a statement:
"In true fashion of Obama-Reid-Pelosi hubris, the IPAB is the definition of a government takeover. America's seniors deserve the ability to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions that affect their Medicare, but IPAB would take that away from seniors and put power in the hands of politically-appointed Washington bureaucrats. This bill to repeal IPAB is just one step towards starting over with real health care reform that empowers patients instead of beltway bureaucrats."