Democrats didn’t cut Medicare by $280 billion

President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into legislation on Aug. 16, 2022. It made sweeping adjustments to healthcare and local weather coverage, and have become one of the vital vital items of laws handed throughout his tenure.

The legislation handed with zero Republican votes, and attracted vital conservative criticism that has continued into 2023.

One line of criticism that’s been steadily repeated is a declare that the legislation dramatically slashes Medicare. A VERIFY viewer requested if it was true that Democrats cut $280 billion from this system as a part of the IRA, as Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) recently claimed.

Did Democrats cut $280 billion from Medicare?

No, Democrats didn’t cut $280 billion from Medicare.

Scott resurrected claims that had been in style in political commercials in the course of the midterm elections, that Democrats cut almost $300 billion in Medicare spending as a part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

That quantity comes from an evaluation of the IRA carried out by the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that sure provisions within the legislation would save this system upwards of $280 billion over the following decade.

But that cash is value financial savings, not cuts to Medicare advantages. The legislation permits Medicare to offer the identical companies at much less value to taxpayers.

For occasion, Medicare can now negotiate with drug firms to get cheaper costs on medicines for its sufferers. Before the IRA, Medicare wasn’t legally allowed to try this.

Healthcare and price range coverage teams agreed the claims about Medicare cuts had been baseless.

“It’s been fact-checked repeatedly and shown to be a lie,” Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vp for presidency affairs, said in August. “In fact, this bill saves Medicare nearly $300 billion by lowering the price of drugs. Only drug companies would say that saving people money is a bad thing.”

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget referred to as such claims “misleading attacks” after they aired in adverts in the course of the midterms, saying: “In reality, the bill’s prescription drug savings would save the federal government nearly $300 billion through 2031 without cutting benefits – and while actually reducing premiums and out-of-pocket costs by nearly $300 billion more.”