Fact-check: Would plan supported by Joe Manchin, AARP ‘drain billions’ from Medicare?

A snappy political advertisement from the conservative advocacy group American Commitment bluntly charges Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., with supporting a legislative plan that would drain “billions in funds” from Medicare.

Specifically, the ad claims that Manchin and AARP, the well-known advocacy group for people 50 and older, “support government price-setting schemes that’ll give liberal politicians billions in funds meant for Medicare to spend on unrelated government programs or pad big insurers’ profits.” Here, “price-setting” is a reference to a policy proposal that its backers say would give Medicare the ability to rein in the prices it pays for some prescription drugs so they are more in line with prices in other industrialized countries.

American Commitment didn’t respond directly to KHN’s request for comment, but its president, Phil Kerpen, took to Twitter to react to our email inquiry. Kerpen tweeted on July 14 that “CBO shows Manchin/Schumer drug price controls raid Medicare for $287 billion, most of which is expected to be sent to insurance companies as supersized Obamacare subsidies.”

Source: Fact-check: Would plan supported by Joe Manchin, AARP ‘drain billions’ from Medicare? / Texas Standard

One Response

  • I would also like to drain billions from Medicare- without affecting the level of services or the number of beneficiaries covered. According to the GAO, my company can reduce Medicare & Medicaid fraud by 1/4. And they didn’t get it right.

    If American Commitment was truly for free-market policies it would not oppose free-market price negotiations.

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