What You Need to
Know
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Becerra emphasized that he has had health policy experience.
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He said he would be ready to talk about ways to extend Medicare
program solvency.
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Republican senators avoided making harsh attacks on the
Affordable Care Act.
ADemocratic nominee to be the U.S. Health and Human
Services (HHS) secretary had nice things to say Wednesday about the Medicare
Advantage program.
Xavier Becerra — who is the current attorney general of
California, and who spent 24 years serving in the U.S. House of
Representatives — talked about the program briefly during a hearing
on the nomination that was organized by the Senate Finance Committee and
streamed live on the web.
“We see that Medicare Advantage gives us an easier chance
to create what are called wraparound programs, to reach out to more people with
more services,” Becerra said, in response to a question from Sen. Mike Crapo,
R-N.D. Crapo is now the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Finance
Committee.
Becerra also appeared at a confirmation hearing
Tuesday that was organized by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
(HELP) Committee. The Senate HELP Committee members focused mainly on topics
such as the COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
Becerra said at the Senate HELP hearing that
he would work to build on the current U.S. health coverage system, and not work
to replace it with a single-payer health care system, but he did not talk much
about health insurance at that hearing.
A Public-Private Partnership
The Medicare Advantage program gives private insurers and
managed care companies a chance to offer an alternative to traditional Medicare
coverage, or “Original Medicare,” to the 63 million U.S. residents who are
eligible for Medicare coverage. About 25 million Medicare enrollees are in
Medicare Advantage plans.
Becerra’s positive words about the Medicare Advantage
program were somewhat noteworthy because Becerra has been a supporter of
proposals for setting up a single-payer, government-run health care system.
Traditionally, some supporters of single-payer health care
proposals have objected to the kind of involvement that private organizations,
including for-profit companies, have in the Medicare Advantage program.
President Joseph Biden said repeatedly while he was on the
campaign trail that he would work to get more people health coverage mainly by
improving and expanding programs that already exist, not by throwing out
the current system and replacing it with a single-payer health care system.
Coverage for People Under 65?
Crapo also asked Becerra about his thoughts about
commercial health coverage.
The atmosphere at the hearing was generally friendly, as
it was at the Senate HELP hearing, possibly because Becerra left Congress only
in 2017.
But Crapo did highlight Becerra’s record of supporting
single-payer health care proposals.
“What assurances can you give to Americans who currently
have private insurance, including through Medicare Advantage, and that are
satisfied with their insurance provider, that they will not lose their coverage
in the future, to some sort of Medicare for All approach, or to some other
federal takeover of health care?” he asked.
Becerra responded that: “I’m here at the
pleasure of the president of the United States, who made it very clear where he
is,” Becerra said. “He wants to build on the Affordable Care Act. That will be
my mission, to achieve the goals President Biden put forward, to build on the
Affordable Care Act.
Medicare Trust Fund Solvency
Crapo went on to ask Becerra about warnings that the main
Medicare trust fund, the hospitalization insurance trust fund, could run dry as
early as 2026.
Becerra said that there are short-term fixes and long-term
measures that could be taken to extend Medicare solvency. He did not describe
Medicare fix specifics but said that, if he becomes HHS secretary, he will be
ready to talk about possible ways forward.
Becerra said one basic principle is that any Medicare
solvency extender efforts should leave the people who have paid into the system
whole.
“Our beneficiaries must come first,” he said.
Health Care Experience
Becerra and Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee also
worked to counter the Republican argument that Becerra has too little serious
health policy experience to be the HHS secretary.
Becerra said that he worked to expand the Children’s
Health Insurance Program while he was in Congress and also helped to write the
Affordable Care Act. While he was in House, he said, he served on the House
Ways and Means Committee and worked on Medicare policy issues there.
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