Democrats Cut HOW Much From Medicare?

During an election, there are few issues that spark controversy and heated debate the way that Medicare does.  Just look at how the Democrats have treated the Paul Ryan budget plan for it’s changes to Medicare.

But are the Democrats justified in doing so after they passed The Affordable Care Act – or more commonly referred to as Obamacare?

Thanks to The American Action Network, we now can see the effects on Medicare as a result of the Democrats passage of the Affordable Care Act.

In July, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated analysis of the Medicare cuts included in the Affordable Care Act.  This CBO estimate is the first in which Medicare cuts are calculated in a complete 10-year budget window.  From 2013-2022, the estimated cuts to Medicare total an estimated $716 billion.

Now the folks at The American Action Network are some thorough people.  They have provided Americans with a list of all members of Congress who supported this bill, and broke down how much each representative cut from their constituency.

How much did they cut from YOUR district?  Find out here!

How exactly did the AAN compile their data for district level statistics?  It’s quite simple, actually.  According to their ‘Methodology’ sheet, they did so with the following formula:

Using the county-level data from the University of Minnesota’s Medical Industry Leadership Institute (MILI) Working Paper and combining it with the U.S. Census Bureau’s redistricting data, the American Action Network has identified the size of the Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage cuts for each congressional district. This analysis was done by using the shares of the county level data and allocating it to the portion of that county that is in each congressional district for the 113th Congress. The allocation was based on the percentage of the county’s residents over age 65 who reside in each congressional district. The shares for each county-district overlap were then summed at the congressional district level, to determine the Medicare cut share for each district.