White House Medicare proposal draws ire from advocates, liberals

The Hill reports that President Barack Obama's plan to combine Medicare's doctor and hospital costs is unpopular among advocates for the elderly and some liberal Democrats. Meanwhile, Medpage Today details how the creation of the health law's Independent Payment Advisory Board is on hold because of the slow growth of Medicare spending. The board is supposed to be a backstop if Medicare spending tops a target growth rate.

The Hill: Left Boils As Obama Floats Major Change To Medicare Part A And B
The left is lashing out at a proposal to reform Medicare that President Obama said he would consider as a way to reduce the deficit. Left-leaning groups and liberal lawmakers say that combining Medicare's doctor and hospital coverage would saddle beneficiaries with higher costs (Viebeck, 5/4).

Medpage Today: Medicare: Cost-Cutters On Hold
A Medicare cost-cutting board created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- the subject of much criticism from the medical community and supporters of the law as a whole -- won't have an impact on the program until at least 2016, a top Medicare official said this week. The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) was to form later this year or early next to recommend ways to scale back Medicare spending beginning in 2015. However, the trigger for its formation -- the growth of Medicare spending topping the growth of overall inflation and inflation on medical goods and services -- failed to hit that target, Paul Spitalnic, acting chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), wrote in a letter dated Tuesday (Pittman, 5/3).