Joe Biden Moves to Slash Medicare Advantage
The Biden administration has finalized its move to slash Medicare Advantage as the 46th president has claimed former President Donald Trump seeks to slash entitlement programs.
The Biden administration on Monday will cut base payments for Medicare Advantage plans by an average of .16 percent despite pressure from Republicans and healthcare experts. This follows Biden making controversial moves in the risk adjusting coding system to allegedly make Medicare Advantage payments more accurate.
Biden’s move would impact more than half of Medicare enrollees, as many American seniors now look to Medicare Advantage for their healthcare needs. American seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage could see their supplemental benefits reduced or cost-sharing increased by $33 a month in 2025, according to experts.
Chris Meekins, an analyst, said, “President Biden’s team is gambling that MA beneficiaries won’t realize before the election the benefits Biden’s team is causing them to lose come January 2025.”
Biden’s move to slash Medicare Advantage comes as Trump told Breitbart News he will never touch Social Security or Medicare. This runs contrary to claims from Biden and Democrats that he would cut entitlement programs.
“I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare,” Trump explained. “We’ll have to do it elsewhere. But we’re not going to do anything to hurt them.”
of Medicare Advantage enrollees were satisfied with their care, which is about the same as traditional Medicare. Research has even shown Medicare Advantage outperforms Medicare on 16 different clinical quality measures.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden once sponsored a bill that would sunset and subsequently review and reauthorize programs such as Social Security and Medicare:
Further, Biden may have forgotten that he sponsored a bill in 1975, when he was a senator from Delaware, that would have sunset and subsequently required review and reauthorization — or not — of federal programs, which reportedly included Social Security and Medicare. This proposal is remarkably similar to Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-FL) original proposal, which Biden has frequently attacked.
“We must… begin reviewing existing programs to determine whether they are still effective, and whether they are worth the money that we are putting in them. We must eliminate the wasteful ones,” Biden said when introducing the 1975 legislation.
Republicans and conservatives are crying foul about Biden’s axing of Medicare Advantage.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said, “BREAKING: Biden just cut Medicare benefits AGAIN. 2.8 MILLION Florida seniors use Medicare Advantage & Biden’s cuts will cost them an extra $400 per year. Biden’s war on seniors is devastating & I’m fighting like hell to reverse this terrible decision.”
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), said, “The Biden White House attacks me for wanting to fix and save Medicare, meanwhile @JoeBiden is actively cutting Medicare for 33 million seniors.”
FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon said in a statement:
Yesterday, the Biden administration continued their attacks on the private sector option for seniors on Medicare, Medicare Advantage. This is the second cut in two years. This latest round of cuts will cost seniors an extra $33 per month. That’s a $396 per year rate increase for a cohort largely on fixed incomes and still reeling from terrible inflation. Medicare Advantage is so well-liked and so popular, over 50% of seniors – about 33 million – choose it over traditional Medicare. It’s incredible to me the administration is choosing to assault one of the most popular programs for our seniors.
Cutting a program as popular as Medicare Advantage seems out of character for most Democrats, unless these cuts are a necessary stepping stone towards one of their ultimate goals – Medicare for all. Democrats have been upfront about wanting a single-payer, Medicare for all type system. Perhaps Medicare Advantage and its 33 million customers are simply collateral damage in getting there.
Heritage Action wrote, “Biden is cutting Medicare Advantage benefits for 33 million Americans—and hoping they don’t notice until after the November election. Here’s how benefits for seniors are being cut.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
"Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the twin nutters of Congress, were certain they could beat Trump at his own game, but have made fools of themselves, as usual. The stand-off is not over but with each passing day, the Democrats reveal more of their anti-American, pro-illegal immigration agenda. Conservatives have been sounding the alarm for years: Democrats do not care about American citizens!" PATRICIA McCARTHY
Joni Ernst Accuses Biden Admin of ‘Stealing’ from Veteran ‘Heroes’ to Fund Illegal Immigrants
Democrat President Joe Biden’s border crisis is so “out of control” that his administration is “willing to steal from our nation’s heroes and divert resources away from their care,” charged Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who reiterated her dedication to fighting the current administration’s outrageous redirection of resources from veterans to illegal immigrants.
As the border crisis under Biden worsens, Ernst, who is the Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair, is standing up for border security and veterans’ rights.
Demanding a halt to the diversion of veterans’ resources to illegal immigrants, Ernst is supporting legislation to prevent the current administration from “stealing” veterans’ funds and misusing them.
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In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News on Friday, Ernst, a combat veteran, called out the president for prioritizing immigrants and redirecting resources from veterans amid the deteriorating border crisis.
“President Biden’s border crisis is so out of control that his administration is willing to steal from our nation’s heroes and divert resources away from their care,” she said.
“This shouldn’t be up for debate: immigrants who have broken our laws should not receive priority over American veterans, period,” she added, vowing to “continue demanding border security and standing up for those who defended our freedoms and way of life.”
The matter comes amid reports the Biden administration is leveraging resources and personnel at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide healthcare to illegal immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.
Hundreds of foreigners broke the fence with their hands, sticks and different tools they had, placed blankets over the spikes and entered the United States, through the area known as Gate 36 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on March 21, 2024. (Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Ernst has long criticized the Biden administration’s focus on illegal immigrants over veterans, notably opposing the use of VA staff for border issues tied to the end of the Title 42 Order in a 2022 letter to the president.
She is also spearheading Sarah’s Law, which reinforces accountability for crimes by illegal immigrants, while urging Biden to use taxpayer-funded border wall materials. She initiated the BUILD IT Act and cosponsored the FINISH IT Act, incorporated into the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, aiming to mitigate Biden’s border issues.
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Ocala Police Dept./BODY CAMS+ /TMXRecently, she backed a bill to stop the VA from offering healthcare or handling claims for individuals in the U.S. illegally.
From February 2021 through February 2024, Biden has overseen nine million encounters at the nation’s borders — more than 7.4 million of which occurred at the southern border. Those figures do not include the nearly two million “known got-aways” who successfully crossed U.S. borders or the millions more who are estimated to have successfully crossed the border but who remain unknown by Border Patrol.
According to an unofficial report reviewed by Breitbart Texas, U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the southwest border apprehended nearly 140,000 migrants in March — virtually unchanged from February.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
As State Spends Millions for Migrants, Immigration Becomes Top Colorado Election Issue
A recent poll finds that the issue of illegal immigration has become a top election issue in Colorado as the state drowns in tens of millions spent on freebies for Joe Biden’s illegal border crossers.
A statewide poll of Colorado voters shows that Joe Biden’s border crisis is weighing heavily on the minds of Coloradans.
The poll, conducted by the Colorado Polling Institute, quizzed 632 likely voters in the Centennial State on what they feel are the most important issues of the 2024 election, the Denver Gazette reported.
Illegal immigration topped the list in the poll, with 14 percent of those surveyed saying it was the most important issue. Homelessness came in at number two, with 12 percent. In many cases, though, homelessness is a kindred issue to that of the influx of illegal immigrants.
People pack and prepare to leave the largest migrant encampment on 27th Ave. between Zuni St. and Alcott St. in Denver, Colorado, on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. The City Council has allocated $300,000 for migrant families from this campsite to help cover their first month’s rent. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Republican pollster Lori Weigel, of New Bridge Strategy, said, “Immigration emerging as a top issue among voters in Colorado follows trends we are seeing in research nationally.”
“Given the number of new arrivals in Denver, it’s not surprising to see in our survey that 66% of respondents in the Denver-metro area viewed the issue as a crisis or major problem, but even 57% elsewhere in the state said the same,” Weigel added.
Indeed, Weigel is correct. A recent national Harvard/Harris poll found that immigration was the number-one issue going into the 2024 election.
Further, 51 percent in the Colorado poll said that state resources are being “overwhelmed” by the influx of illegal aliens.
Denver has been engulfed in a sea of Joe Biden’s illegal immigrants with more than 40,000 arriving in the city since last year at a cost of some $63 million in tax dollars spent on giving the migrants fee housing, food, clothing, medical care, legal care, education, and more.
The Gazette further notes that city taxpayers are on the hook for the lion’s share of those expenditures after federal sources have only reimbursed Denver to the tune of $14 million.
Denver officials are so put upon that some have been caught on video pleading with migrants to turn around and abandon plans to stay in Denver.
On Wednesday, Denver’s recently appointed “Newcomer Communications Liaison,” Andres Carrera, was seen on a video recorded on one of the city’s main shelters pleading with migrants to take city-paid trips to Chicago or New York City.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has also been trying to prevent illegal aliens from coming to Denver in the first place.
Last October, Johnston sent city officials to several Texas border towns to distribute flyers telling migrants to skip Denver because the city was full and had no more room for illegals.
But Colorado’s laws act as a draw, despite the pleading of officials for migrants to forego the trip to the Centennial State.
The Colorado Polling Institute poll has a plus or minus margin of error at four percent.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston.
Chicago Alderman: We Could Have Avoided Measles, Tuberculosis Issue by Making Migrants Follow Vaccine Rules
On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez stated that the issues that the city has faced with tuberculosis and measles among migrants in the city could have been avoided “if we had simply instituted the American standard of vaccines upon all of those migrants being shipped to the City of Chicago.” And enforced the city’s vaccine requirements for children on migrant children.
Lopez said, “I don’t know how much our Department of Public Health or our other officials are listening to the alarms that we’ve been raising since August of last year, and even in September, when we had receipts from our ambulances showing that we had individuals testing positive for tuberculosis. This is a crisis we could have avoided, just like with the measles, if we had simply instituted the American standard of vaccines upon all of those migrants being shipped to the City of Chicago. Many of these individuals come with children, they are in our schools, and all of those vaccination requirements that our kids are responsible for are waived for the migrant asylum seeker children. And that is putting people, families, and communities at risk.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Sanctuary City Chicago: Tuberculosis Reported at Multiple Migrant Shelters
Health officials in the sanctuary city of Chicago, Illinois, have reported several cases of tuberculosis at migrant shelters.
Officials with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) revealed that there are “a small number of cases” of tuberculosis (TB) “among new arrivals in a few different shelters over the course of the response.”
A spokesperson with CDPH noted the high rates of TB in countries from which migrants are arriving in the United States:
It is important to note that an estimated 10-20% of residents of Central and South America have latent TB infection, which is asymptomatic and not transmissible to others, but does result in a positive TB test. For those who do have active cases of TB disease, CDPH assigns a nurse case manager to each individual and performs a contact tracing investigation. TB is curable with antibiotics and is not particularly infectious, typically requiring several hours or more of prolonged close contact between individuals to spread, but CDPH continues to take cases seriously in order to keep it contained. To date, CDPH has not confirmed any reports of TB that resulted from exposure to new arrivals in Chicago. [Emphasis added]
TB is not a novel or rarely seen illness in Chicago, as the Chicago Department of Public Health typically expects to see between 100-150 cases of tuberculosis in Chicago residents in an average year. We will continue to offer treatment to individuals as necessary and take the proper precautions to eliminate spread, but we do not consider this a matter presenting a substantial threat to the public. [Emphasis added]
CDPH officials did not divulge the exact number of TB cases among migrants or the location of the shelters where the TB cases originated.
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez (D), who has lobbied to end the city’s sanctuary policy, blasted Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) and the city administration for ignoring the public health concerns that come with mass immigration.
“I have warned Chicago for months about what was already here,” Lopez wrote:
Performative politics and hurt feelings kept City Hall from avoiding the obvious looming disaster. Anyone who demanded action to protect our residents was called racist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant by fringe politicians. [Emphasis added]
And now here we are: measles, now tuberculosis both “confirmed” in Chicago. Shame on every mouthpiece that worked so hard to keep this secret. [Emphasis added]
I don’t expect apologies or an enlightened response from the performative deniers: those folks have never let facts get in the way of their narrative. However, everyday Chicagoans MUST demand [Chicago Mayor] and his cronies take this seriously, demand American immunization standards for all asylum seekers and their children within [Chicago Public Schools], and stop muting the truth. [Emphasis added]
In March, a handful of migrants in Chicago tested positive for measles. In 2023, warnings spread as reports suggested that migrants were piling up at shelters with flu-like symptoms.
New York City, another sanctuary city that has taken in waves of migrants under President Joe Biden, has been struck with cases of TB as well as polio as a result.
The Biden administration has been reluctant to detail the number of migrants arriving at the nation’s borders with various illnesses and diseases that had long been nearly eradicated in the U.S. In 2023, though, a court-ordered report from the administration found that thousands of unaccompanied alien children had been released into the U.S. interior with inactive TB.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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