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Detail for 2017 House Roll Call Vote 604

Vote Date
2-Nov-2017
Yeas : Nays
307 : 111

Our Congress Position Report shows how every member voted during this vote.

Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:

National Taxpayers Union

h2017-604.

h2017-604.

Family Research Council

IPAB Repeal.

Sponsored by Rep. David Roe (R-Tenn.), the Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act of 2017 (H.R. 849) would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) created by Obamacare. IPAB represents the wrong way to control health care costs and will result in government healthcare rationing.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

The Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act H.R. 849.

This group supports H.R. 849, the “Protecting Seniors’ Access to Medicare Act of 2017,” which would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act( PPACA). 

The IPAB is a commission with the unprecedented authority to make recommendations to cut Medicare spending by reducing reimbursement rates if the growth rate of spending exceeds the target rate. If Congress does not implement spending cuts equal to the amount recommended by the IPAB, the IPAB’s recommendations automatically take effect with no administrative or judicial review.

In addition to setting a dangerous precedent for superseding the conventional legislative process, the IPAB decisions would potentially lead to arbitrary cuts in the Medicare program. If reimbursement rates to Medicare providers are inadequate, this would shift costs onto private payers and consumers while also limiting patient access to care and innovative therapies.

Instead of focusing on improving healthcare and implementing delivery system reforms to address cost and quality issues in healthcare, the IPAB’s likely focus on simply reducing provider payment rates would preclude a constructive dialogue about Medicare modernization and meaningful spending reform.

Citizens Against Government Waste

Independent Payment Advisory Board Repeal – Passage.

Passage of the bill that would repeal provisions of the 2010 health care overhaul that provide for the creation of Independent Payment Advisory Board, which would recommend cost-cutting measures if Medicare spending exceeds a target growth rate. It would restore the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which would make non-binding recommendations related to controlling health care costs associated with Medicare.

The John Birch Society

Death Panel.

The Protecting Seniors’ Access to Medicare Act (H.R. 849) would repeal the provisions of ObamaCare providing for the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), otherwise known as the “death panel.” In a statement applauding the passage of H.R. 849, David O.Barbe, president of the American Medical Association (AMA), said, “IPAB puts significant health care payment and policy decisions in the hands of an independent body with far too little accountability. Its cost-cutting targets would lead to short-sighted strategies that would threaten access to care for millions of Medicare patients across the country.”

The House passed H.R. 849 . This group supported this legislation because the Constitution does not authorize the federal government to interfere in healthcare, let alone ration it by deciding who should and should not receive medical care.

The National Association of Manufacturers

HR849 Protecting Seniors Access to Medicare Act.

Vote on H.R. 849, Protecting Seniors' Access to Medicare Act of 2017. This bill repeals the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) that was created under the 2010 health care law that granted the 15-person board the ability to reduce Medicare growth rates through cost shifting adjustments in reimbursements and coverage without congressional approval. While the IPAB is intended to decrease Medicare growth rates, manufacturers believe the ultimate effect would be additional cost shifting to the private sector and increases to manufacturers' health care costs.

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