A flurry of amendments have passed the Senate this afternoon, all basically symbolic “sense of the Senate” things designed to prove that the health care bill will use CLASS Act funds for the CLASS Act, that Medicare benefit cuts will not occur, and so on. We’re still in the hors d’ouevres section of the amendment menu.

But I want to go back to the motion to commit submitted by John McCain that failed yesterday, which would have sent the bill back to the Senate Finance Committee to strip out all Medicare “cuts”. It failed 42-58, with just two Democratic supporters, Ben Nelson and Jim Webb. Webb has now given his statement on yesterday’s vote:

“I voted in favor of the McCain amendment because I do not believe it is reasonable to cut back on Medicare funding at a time when the pool for Medicare is going to expand as the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement age.  Further, I am a long-time supporter of Medicare Advantage programs which have in my view greatly improved services in rural areas such as Southside and Southwest Virginia.
 
“I look forward to continuing the debate on this bill and remain hopeful that the Senate can reach consensus on fair and effective health care legislation.”

Webb is falling for the trap that eliminating overpayments to Medicare Advantage, for example, would somehow “cut back on Medicare.” In fact, Medicare Advantage is an extreme bit of corporate welfare that funnels billions of taxpayer dollars to private insurance companies. The insurers pocket much of that money as windfall profits, and according to the GAO the program increases Medicare spending, in contrast to the myth that all private enterprise is more efficient than the government.

There was a program for many years that would let seniors get their Medicare benefits through a private insurance company instead of the traditional Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) system. The government would give these private insurance plans slightly less money than they would normally pay per capita to Medicare enrollees. This program was meant to save the government money. For the most part, the only types of private insurance that would participate were HMOs that could provide more cost-effective care. Relatively few private insurance companies could provide the same care for less money, so the program was not used by many Medicare enrollees.

This all changed with the massive Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. It put in place a new bidding formula for determining how much Medicare would pay a private insurance company to cover an enrollee. The formula was horribly flawed, and the result has been one of the most massive corporate giveaways in American history.

In essence, Webb would keep these private plans, which cost the government billions more for the exact same benefits they could provide directly through Medicare, in business. Republicans, in the name of “saving” Medicare, are simply protecting huge corporate giveaways, and Webb agrees with them.

He is contradicted by Sen. Harry Reid, who released this statement:

“Senate Democrats want to fix Medicare Advantage and make sure that more money from that program goes to seniors’ benefits and less to insurance companies. It is unfortunate that Senate Republicans will not join with us to fix the inequities in Medicare Advantage. Their amendment is an early Christmas gift to insurers and a cold shoulder to our seniors.

“Senate Democrats will continue to show the American people that we’re serious about making reform work in a fiscally responsible way that puts money toward care instead of profit.”

Hopefully this is not a precursor to how Sen. Webb will continue in this debate.