Here's to diving below the overheated healthcare rhetoric.
It's widely assumed that tonight's vice presidential debate will be a health policy wonkfest (with zingers) that submerges deeply into the numerous conflicting approaches of the two presidential tickets. Specifically, the debate likely will focus on Medicare due to the significant changes the Obama administration has made to the program and because of the overhaul proposed by the Romney-Ryan ticket.
But there are a couple health policy questions that each campaign has rarely addressed that could give some insight and move beyond the rhetoric of which side is “ending Medicare as we know it.”
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Do you catch more advocacy groups with honey than vinegar?
One House Republican is trying to win over a key supporter of the federal healthcare law.
The AARP's support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was seen as a politically critical step in mollifying seniors' concerns about the legislation. Since the law's enactment, the group's support has served as a continuing bulwark against Republican charges that the law will undermine Medicare. And as Medicare has risen to prominence in the presidential campaign with the Republican vice presidential nomination of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the advocacy group for older Americans has again moved to political fore.
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There must be something about the July heat in Washington that gets House Republicans fired up about the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a yet-to-be appointed panel the 2010 healthcare reform law created to control the per-capita growth rate in Medicare.
A year ago this week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before two House committees to answer questions about the purpose and merits of the 15-member board. And this week—on the same day the House voted a second time to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act—Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), a physician, sent a letter to the AARP that asked the organizations representing America's seniors to publicly support repealing the board.
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