Repealing the Obamacare cost-cutting panel that Republicans have long despised would cost the federal government $17.4 billion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.
A two-year budget agreement would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, created under Obamacare to cut Medicare if spending gets too high. The price tag for repeal would be $17.4 billion through 2027, according to a CBO estimate on the full budget deal.
IPAB has been a target of Republican ire since Obamacare was created.
During the debate over Obamacare in 2009, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin inaccurately referred to the board as a “death panel” that would cut off seniors from healthcare.
In reality, the 15-member panel was created to rein in healthcare costs.
If Medicare spending reaches a certain point, the panel meets to trigger certain cuts to the program. Congress can overturn the cuts, but only if it gets a supermajority.
The panel was never convened and spending never reached the point to trigger the cuts.
However, Republicans and even some Democrats have long hated the panel because it cedes congressional authority over Medicare spending to an outside group.
The CBO analysis does not go into detail over why repealing the panel would cost the federal government so much money.
Some Democrats weren’t too upset that the two-year budget deal would eliminate the panel. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., pointed out that IPAB was never impaneled.
“I think you need to be open to amending the Affordable Care Act,” Murphy said. “If there were cost controls that were ultimately ineffective or unnecessary I think you have to be open to getting rid of them.”
CBO found that the budget deal would cost the government $320 billion over the next decade.
Congress is expected to pass on Thursday a deal outlining the spending levels of the budget and a short-term bill to fund the government until March 23. Congress will then vote again next month on an “omnibus” spending bill that appropriates the funding.
