Our New Obamacare Masters

[Geee]

Weekly Standard:

The day after the Obama administration’s shellacking at the polls, Peter Orszag, former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, defended Obamacare from the ramparts of the New York Times. Dubiously asserting that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a money saver, Orszag extolled the establishment of an arcane new commission to oversee the Medicare budget:

Perhaps most important, the legislation creates an Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel of independent medical experts who will look for more ways to improve Medicare’s cost-effectiveness. Under the law, any policy that the board issues takes effect unless legislation to block it is passed by Congress and signed by the president. This way, inertia works in favor of cost containment rather than against it.

In other words, the only way to stop the commission’s fiscal “recommendations” from taking effect is for Congress to act. Talk about creating a new level of raw bureaucratic power.

Orszag was actually restrained in describing the depth of the Independent Payment Advisory Board’s statutory authority. At present, Congress is responsible for setting the policies that govern all aspects of Medicare, including payments to health care providers and facilities. That arrangement is inevitably messy because the people have a strong say.