Not only that, but IPAB began this year(2012), with $15 million to be spent getting the board’s infrastructure up and running. Soon, the president will be nominating its 15 “expert” members of the board of directors, each of whom is subject to Senate confirmation.
Expect these nominations to be among President Obama’s first actions should he be re-elected. Indeed, he will have little time to waste. According to the terms of the Affordable Care Act, IPAB must submit its first draft recommendations to the health and human services secretary by September 1, 2013. Its first Medicare cost-cutting goals must become law by August 15, 2014.
Why did I write “must” become law” instead of “may”? IPAB’s unique “fast track” authority divests Congress of discretion regarding the amount of money to be cut from Medicare once IPAB has submitted its “advice.” Get a load of these legislative handcuffs:
By January 15, 2014, IPAB must submit a proposal to Congress and the president for reaching Medicare savings targets in the coming year.
The majority leaders in the House and Senate must introduce bills incorporating the board’s proposal the day they receive it.
Congress cannot “consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report;that would repeal or otherwise change the recommendations of the board” if such changes fail to meet the board’s budgetary target.
By April 1, all legislative committees must complete their evaluation. Any committee that fails to meet the deadline is barred from further consideration of the bill.
If Congress does not pass the proposal or a substitute plan meeting the IPAB’s financial target before August 15, or if the president vetoes the proposal passed by Congress, the original Independent Payment Advisory Board recommendations automatically take effect.
From IPAB: the part of Obamacare that can’t be repealed Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/06/ipab-the-part-of-obamacare-that-cant-be-repealed/#ixzz25DcKPSYm
“As the law now stands, IPAB can’t be dissolved before 2017, and then only by a three-fifths vote of both Houses of Congress. Oh, and the legislative stake through the heart can only be introduced between January 3 and February 1 of that year, and must be passed by August 15. Did I say handcuffs earlier? I meant straight jacket.
Whether the terms of an existing law can bind subsequent Congresses remains an open constitutional question. But getting the matter finally decided by the courts would take years. Besides, we can no longer trust judges and justices to do the right constitutional thing even when they know what it is.”
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/06/ipab-the-part-of-obamacare-that-cant-be-repealed/2/
IPAB was the brainchild of one Dr. (and I use that term very loosely) Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of the foul mouthed mayor of Chicago. His basis is that there is a finite amount of health care dollars and they need to be allocated to the care of those Productive Citizens who basically can vote for the Democrat party. When crafting this monstrosity, they were under the delusion that the Democrat party would keep winning for the next fifty years according to James Carville. 2010 put a dent in his theory, which was based on, I believe, their having complete and total control of the Education/Indoctrination sector thereby guaranteeing that their time had come to foist upon the masses all of their Communist/Marxist ideas.