Even Barney Frank Wants the IPAB Repealed

Hardly a friend of the right-to-life cause, it is refreshing to learn that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) has joined 212 Members of the House of Representatives calling for repeal of the dreaded Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a major centerpiece of Obamacare.

Obamacare gives an appointed IPAB wide authority, without congressional oversight, to impose “quality” and “efficiency” measures on health care providers which are required to report their compliance. According to National Right to Life’s Burke Balch, “Doctors who dare to give their patients treatment beyond what these measures permit will be excluded from contracting with any qualified health insurance plans……What this amounts to is that doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers will be told by Washington bureaucrats just what diagnostic tests and medical care is considered to meet ‘quality’ and ‘efficiency standards — not only for federally funded health care programs like Medicare, but also for health care paid for by private citizens and their nongovernmental health insurance.”

In addition to the 212 Congressmen, over 290 medical organizations have sent letters to Congress urging repeal of the IPAB.

What has been the President’s response as he sees his signature law under attack? He is fighting hard to keep IPAB in place, even proposing to use IPAB as a means to pay for his jobs bill! “The recently released ‘Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction,’ while relying on many expected tax increases to fund the jobs plan, also reveals a telling agenda with respect to the IPAB. The President would have IPAB significantly reduce the resources that can be used for life- and health-saving medical care even below the limit that was set in the Obama health care law,” states Balch. Ominous.

So, as Barney Frank prepares to leave the Congress, he has done the American public a big favor by weighing on on this critical issue — on the right side.

Barbara Lyons