Romney Campaign Press Release - The Truth: President Obama Cut Medicare For Seniors

Today, President Obama Claimed He Has A Record Of Protecting Medicare Benefits For Seniors:

President Obama, On His Medicare Record Today: "Will Not Touch Your Medicare Benefits, Not By A Dime." OBAMA: "I've proposed reforms that will save Medicare money by getting rid of wasteful spending in the healthcare system. Reforms that will not touch your Medicare benefits, not by a dime." (President Barack Obama, Remarks, Dubuque, IA, 8/15/12)

But President Obama And His Own Campaign Have Already Touted Obamacare's Medicare Cuts As An Achievement:

Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter Bragged That President Obama "Achieved" $700 Billion In "Cuts In Medicare." CUTTER: "Well, you know ask the wealthy to pay a little bit more. Cut waste from the government. Reform Medicare. More than $300 billion in savings from Medicare. On top of the savings we've already achieved. You know I heard Mitt Romney deride the $700 billion cuts in Medicare that the president achieved through health care reform." (CBS's "Face The Nation," 8/12/12)

President Obama Told ABC's Jake Tapper That One-Third Of Obamacare's Funding Comes From Medicare Cuts And He Would Veto Any Attempt To Repeal Them. ABC's JAKE TAPPER: "One of the concerns about health care and how you pay for it -- one third of the funding comes from cuts to Medicare." BARACK OBAMA: "Right." TAPPER: "A lot of times, as you know, what happens in Congress is somebody will do something bold and then Congress, close to election season, will undo it." OBAMA: "Right." TAPPER: "You saw that with the 'doc fix'." OBAMA: "Right." TAPPER: "Are you willing to pledge that whatever cuts in Medicare are being made to fund health insurance, one third of it, that you will veto anything that tries to undo that?" OBAMA: "Yes. I actually have said that it is important for us to make sure this thing is deficit neutral, without tricks. I said I wouldn't sign a bill that didn't meet that criteria." (ABC News, 11/9/09)

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And What Cuts Did President Obama Achieve? $716 Billion From Medicare That Will Impact Benefits And Raises Costs For Seniors And Future Retirees:

According To The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare Cuts $716 Billion From Medicare. (Congressional Budget Office, Letter To Speaker John Boehner, 7/24/12)

• Miami Herald: "Obama's $700 Billion Medicare-Cut Problem" (Marc Caputo, "Obama's $700 Billion Medicare-Cut Problem," Miami Herald, 8/12/12)

Obamacare's Cuts Will Cause Enrollment In Medicare Advantage To "Plummet By About 50 Percent" And Leave Seniors With "Higher Out-Of-Pocket Costs." "In addition to flagging provider cuts as potentially unsustainable, the report [HHS] projected that reductions in payments to private Medicare Advantage plans would trigger an exodus from the popular alternative. Enrollment would plummet by about 50 percent. Seniors leaving the private plans would still have health insurance under traditional Medicare, but many might face higher out-of-pocket costs." (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, "Report Says Health Care Will Cover More, Cost More," The Associated Press, 4/23/10)

The Medicare Actuary Has Estimated 15% Of "Hospitals, Skilled Nursing Facilities, And Home Health Agencies" Will Be In The Red Before The Decade Is Over. "In the Office of the Actuary's April 22, 2010 memorandum on the estimated financial effects of the Affordable Care Act, we noted that by 2019 the update reductions would result in negative total facility margins for about 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies. This estimated percentage would continue to increase, reaching roughly 25 percent in 2030 and 40 percent by 2050. In practice, providers could not sustain continuing negative margins and, absent legislative changes, would have to withdraw from providing services to Medicare beneficiaries, merge with other provider groups, or shift substantial portions of Medicare costs to their non-Medicare, non-Medicaid payers." ("Projected Expenditures Under An Illustrative Scenario With Alternative Payment Updates To Medicare Providers," Center For Medicare & Medicaid Services, 5/13/11)

• President Obama's Medicare Cuts Will Mean Hospitals And Other Care Facilities "Might Drop Medicare Patients."  "15 percent of hospitals and other care facilities that rely on Medicare reimbursements would become unprofitable, meaning that they might drop Medicare patients." (Editorial, "Malpractice," Columbus Dispatch, 4/28/12)

52 Percent Of Doctors Say Obamacare Will Compel Them To Close Or Significantly Restrict Their Practices To Medicare Patients. (Merritt Hawkins, "Health Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice," The Physicians Foundation, October 2010)

FactCheck.org: "The Promise That 'Benefits Will Remain The Same' Is Just As Fictional As The Town Of Mayberry..." "Currently, about 1 in every 4 Medicare beneficiary is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. For many of them, the words in this ad ring hollow, and the promise that 'benefits will remain the same' is just as fictional as the town of Mayberry was when Griffith played the local sheriff." (Brooks Jackson, "Mayberry Misleads On Medicare," FactCheck.org, 7/31/10)

The Columbus Dispatch, On Obamacare's Medicare Cuts: "Would Limit The Availability Of Care For Millions Of Seniors In The Medicare Program..." "Almost daily, the ill effects of the health-care overhaul passed by Congress last month are becoming apparent. ... That's just for starters. The report also warns that the $575 billion in Medicare reductions that are supposed to help pay for the overhaul are unrealistic. ... This would limit the availability of care for millions of seniors in the Medicare program at a time when doctors and hospitals already will be stretched thin by the addition of millions of other Americans clamoring to use the health insurance the overhaul will provide." (Editorial, "Malpractice," The Columbus Dispatch, 4/28/12)