NAACP balks at Dem plan on Medicare

In a letter sent to House members yesterday, the NAACP expressed its opposition to Democrats’ plan to cut Medicare payments to health-insurance companies.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said reduced spending for Medicare Advantage (MA), through which insurers provide Medicare benefits, would be harmful to minorities, who make up a large share of the program’s enrollees.

“This program is vitally important to the health and well-being of racial and ethnic minorities who rely on MA to provide them with the comprehensive, affordable and coordinated care they need,” NAACP Director Hillary Shelton wrote. Some MA plans provide benefits not included in standard Medicare, such as disease-management for conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, which are more common among African-Americans, the letter noted.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Jim McCrery (R-La.) distributed the text of the letter to reporters via e-mail.

Senior Democrats including Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) maintain that Medicare spends more to cover MA beneficiaries than it would cost to keep them in government-run Medicare. The Democratic leadership also sees cutting MA plans as a key to freeing up funding to spend on other priorities, such as enhancing the Medicare prescription-drug benefit and expanding children’s healthcare coverage.