Claim: President Joe Biden during Thursday’s State of the Union address claimed that he would stop “anyone” who tries to cut Medicare.
Verdict: False. Biden is actively moving to cut Medicare Advantage, an increasingly popular Medicare option for American seniors.
Biden trotted out the tired rhetorical line that Republicans seek to slash Medicare and Social Security, two popular entitlement programs:
Imagine a future with home care and elder care so seniors and people living with disabilities can stay in their homes and family caregivers get paid what they deserve!
Tonight, let’s all agree once again to stand up for seniors!
Many of my Republican friends want to put Social Security on the chopping block.
If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them!
WATCH: Trump Warns GOP Against Cutting Medicare or Social Security Amid Debt Ceiling Fight
Donald J. Trump For President 2024
The 46th president neglected to mention that his administration is actively moving to cut funding to Medicare Advantage, which offers “well-liked” private insurance options that can often provide better coverage and healthcare options compared to traditional Medicare.
Conservative organizations and lawmakers have pointed out this apparent hypocrisy.
Heritage Action wrote, “FACT: @JoeBiden and Democrats are the ones who are actively cutting benefits for Medicare Advantage. Standardizing private Medicare Advantage plans means handing your healthcare options back to the government.”
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), said, “[I]t was never about lowering prices or providing you with higher quality care – it was always about expanding the government as much as possible!”
In March 2024, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and 15 other conservative groups voiced their opposition to Biden’s proposed cutting of Medicare Advantage. Robert Moffit, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, noted that Donald Berwick, former Obama Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator, recently said he sees Medicare Advantage as a threat to traditional Medicare.
“I would like to see Medicare Advantage slowed or stopped right now, or at least forced to have better carriers,” he said.
Progressives such as Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), have voiced similar concerns about Medicare Advantage’s popularity as a threat to Medicare.
The Bull Moose Project wrote about the benefits of Medicare Advantage over Medicare:
MA is exactly the model of a government program that works for the people. It’s one of most successful public-private partnerships in American history. And because it’s so much more efficient than original Medicare, it helps ensure that the Medicare program will be around for younger Americans. Research shows that the Medicare program could be extended by 17 years if original Medicare was more like Medicare Advantage. [Emphasis added]
Jason Pye at FreedomWorks wrote that having more Americans switch to Medicare Advantage may even help alleviate the national debt:
At a time when the national debt stands at $34 trillion, it’s logical that policymakers would be looking for cost savings. But where health care for senior citizens is concerned, genuine reforms across all Medicare offerings are necessary (as opposed to slashing of Medicare Advantage billed as “reform” for rhetorical effect). There is still time to treat this fiscal disease before we need to change the entire system to the Cavendish Banana.
Further, Biden may have forgotten that he sponsored a bill in 1975, when he was a senator from Delaware, that would have sunset and subsequently required review and reauthorization — or not — of federal programs, which reportedly included Social Security and Medicare. This proposal is remarkably similar to Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) original proposal, which Biden has frequently attacked.
“We must… begin reviewing existing programs to determine whether they are still effective, and whether they are worth the money that we are putting in them. We must eliminate the wasteful ones,” Biden said when introducing the 1975 legislation.
In a February 2023 press conference, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about Biden’s 1975 legislation, “The president ran on protecting Medicare and Social Security from cuts, and he reiterated that in the State of the Union. He’s been very clear these past couple of years. Rick Scott has the opposite point,” Jean-Pierre told the press. “That’s just what we’re seeing from Scott.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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