Hassan And Lamontagne Spar Over Medicaid Expansion
Holly Ford Brown / Flickr
At a debate over healthcare issues hosted by the New Hampshire Health Policy Council, the New Hampshire Hospital Association, and NHPR, Lamontagne argued that the Affordable Care Act will take $716 billion over 10 years from Medicare to fund Medicaid expansion. “My parents are on Medicare, I don’t want them to be in a worse position after the fact that we turn over the keys to Washington,” Lamontagne said.
“What Ovide just said was outrageous,” countered his opponent, Democratic candidate Maggie Hassan, who supports Medicaid expansion. The purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to change the reimbursement system, argued Hassan, “so that we can achieve better outcomes for seniors, for people with disabilities, and savings, that can then be used to expand care.”
What are they talking about here?
It’s likely that Lamontagne is referencing a statement Paul Ryan made at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, August 29th. “The biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly,” Ryan said, adding, “so, they just took it all away from Medicare, $716 billion, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.”
Politifact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization, rates Ryan’s statement as “mostly false.” Politifact writes:
“In fact, the law limits payments to health care providers and insurers to try to reduce the rapid growth of future Medicare spending. Lawmakers said they hoped the measures would improve care and efficiency. Those savings, spread out over the next 10 years, are then used to offset costs created by the law (especially coverage for the uninsured) so that the overall law doesn’t add to the deficit. Ryan’s statement is exaggerated and we rate it Mostly False.”
Hear the whole New Hampshire healthcare debate at NHPR.org