Medicare's $716 Billion Cut? (NYT fact checkers reflects on Biden-Ryan debate)

Mr. Ryan made a claim that journalists and independent fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked: that President Obama and Congressional Democrats raided Medicare benefits of $716 billion. But for Mr. Ryan, the claim has drawn countercharges of hypocrisy on his part.

It was notable enough when Mr. Romney last summer started attacking Mr. Obama for “raiding” Medicare of $716 billion over 10 years to help pay for “Obamacare,” and then picked as his running mate Mr. Ryan. As the House Budget Committee chairman, Mr. Ryan had included the same Medicare reductions in the Republican budgets he had passed in the House for two years in a row.

What was even more remarkable was that Mr. Ryan began echoing the charge against Democrats within days of joining the Romney ticket. By contrast, two years ago Mr. Ryan mostly was silent on this line of attack when Republicans took it up in the 2010 midterm elections. (Back then they spoke of $500 billion in Medicare cuts; the higher figure now reflects a 10-year period through 2022 instead of 2020; savings grow over time.) Though the attack helped Republicans capture control of the House in 2010, the next spring Mr. Ryan, now elevated to Budget Committee chairman, incorporated the Democrats’ Medicare savings into his own 10-year budget. He did so again earlier this year.

Now, as in 2010, the Republican charge has several problems.

The $716 billion in reductions over a decade would come not from Medicare benefits, but from lower reimbursements to health-care providers, drug-makers and insurers selling so-called Medicare Advantage policies. However, economists argue that cuts to providers often result in reduced services, and some doctors do refuse to accept Medicare.

The Democrats’ reductions did help offset the cost of Mr. Obama’s 2010 health-care law. But rather than reduce Medicare benefits, that law also provided Medicare recipients with more generous coverage of prescription drugs and new benefits like free mammograms and other preventive-care treatments.

Also, the Obama reductions added eight years to the life of Medicare’s financially troubled trust fund, to 2024, according to Medicare trustees. If the cuts were restored, the insolvency date could revert to 2016.