Taxpayers dodged a multi-billion-dollar bullet this week when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) indicated that it no longer intends to implement a costly package of changes to Medicare Part D.
The decision by CMS came just hours before the House of Representatives planned to vote on H.R. 4160, the Keep the Promise to Seniors Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC). This bill, which NTU enthusiastically supported, would have blocked the proposed rule.
I blogged about the issue last week and noted the strong opposition that was mounting against the rule changes:
[A] bipartisan group of 20 Senators led by Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) recently expressed very strong objections to the proposed rule in a letter to CMS Director Marilyn Tavenner.
Though NTU has had our fair share of concerns about Medicare’s prescription drug program, we were very pleased to see CMS reverse course on a plan that would have cost taxpayers an additional $1.6 billion per year, according to the Milliman actuarial firm. However, as I noted in my earlier post, taxpayers must remain vigilant, as this was “yet another example of the Obama Administration’s over-utilization of the rulemaking process.”