The following content is sponsored by Americans for Limited Government.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) – a relic of Obamacare – has shown itself to be exactly what many feared: a failed socialist experiment dressed up as reform.
Created under Obamacare, CMMI was supposed to test new ideas, lower costs, and make health care work better for everyday Americans. But the reality has been very different.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office shows that over the past decade, CMMI has tried more than 70 different programs and only four have worked well enough to expand nationwide. That’s not innovation. That’s a track record most businesses wouldn’t survive. As House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) put it, “a 5 percent success rate isn’t innovation – it’s failure.”
And this failure is costing taxpayers real money. According to federal budget experts, CMMI spent nearly $8 billion over about ten years, while only saving about $2.6 billion. That leaves taxpayers on the hook for more than $5 billion in losses. Even worse, the program is expected to keep losing money in the years ahead.
Think about that. A program that was sold as a way to save money is actually wasting billions – your money – while politicians in Washington keep calling it a success.
But the problem isn’t just about money. It’s about control.
CMMI was built on the idea that government knows best – that bureaucrats in Washington should decide how doctors are paid and how care is delivered. Democrats didn’t create this program to give patients more choices. They created it to give the federal government more power over the health care system.
And when government takes control, everyday Americans lose out. Many of these programs have been confusing, poorly designed, and hard for doctors and hospitals to participate in. Instead of making care simpler or better, they’ve often made things more complicated.
Conservatives in Congress have been raising red flags about CMMI for years. Lawmakers like Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) have warned that the program is too complex, lacks transparency and accountability, and isn’t delivering results.
The latest report just confirms what they’ve been saying all along: this experiment isn’t working.
Some Republicans are taking action. Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL) recently introduced legislation to abolish CMMI. “Taxpayers are tired of getting ripped off, and I’m fed up, too,” Bean said recently of America’s wasteful health care system. “Every dollar stolen from taxpayers is one dollar too many.”
Bean’s colleagues face a simple choice. Do they finally pull the plug on this Obamacare artifact? Or do they let it keep wasting money and expanding government control over health care?
There’s no point in doubling down on something that’s broken at its core. You don’t keep feeding a dead horse and hope it wins the race – you get off and walk away. Every dollar poured into CMMI is a dollar taken from hardworking Americans and handed to a program that can’t deliver.
If Republicans are serious about cutting waste, ending fraud, protecting patient choice, and getting government out of the doctor’s office, then the answer is clear.
Shut it down.