Today, the Obama Administration released a “report” claiming that the Democrats’ health care law will “save the average Medicare beneficiary $4,200 by 2021.”  While their savings figure is highly suspect, perhaps they attribute the savings to:

• Medicare spending going down because hospitals and nursing homes where seniors are currently treated may be forced to close.
  • Because of the Democrats’ overhaul, Medicare officials predicted that providers in the Medicare program “could find it difficult to remain profitable and, absent legislative intervention, might end their participation in the program (possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries).”  
• Medicare spending decreasing because seniors will have to wait, and wait, and wait to see their physician. 
  • Because of the Democrats’ overhaul, Medicare officials stated,“For now, we believe that consideration should be given to the potential consequences of a significant increase in demand for health care meeting a relatively fixed supply of health care providers and services.”

Conveniently, the Obama Administration’s “report” did not take into account the following changes in the Democrats’ health care overhaul that will increase seniors’ out-of-pocket costs:

• The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare Advantage health plan, which one in four beneficiaries currently are, will see their benefits cut by $816, on average, in 2019 alone because of the Democrats’ $200 billion cut to Medicare health plans.
• CBO also predicted that, because of the Democrats’ changes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit (Part D), seniors’ monthly premiums will increase by 9 percent in 2019.