Slashing at Obamacare, House Votes to Scrap Medicare Advisory Board

For the 26th time, the U.S. House has voted to repeal all or part of Obamacare.

In another party-line vote today, Republicans voted to delete a central component of the law: the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel empowered to make changes to Medicare.

Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Bradenton, who sided with the majority in the 223-181 vote, said, No group of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats should be tasked with deciding what constitutes necessary care for our nations seniors.

This government knows best approach is just another example of why Washington is broken. Doctors and patients should be the ones making decision about their health care -- not bureaucrats. We must never stop fighting to preserve and protect Medicare for all generations," said Buchanan, Floridas only member of the House Ways and Means Committee and its Health Subcommittee.

Specifically, IPAB would consist of 15 bureaucrats, appointed by the president, charged with enacting spending cuts in the Medicare program. Critics of the law believe such cuts could lead to the rationing of care for Medicare beneficiaries.

Buchanan noted that even former Obama Budget Director Peter Orzag called IPAB, [the] single biggest yielding of power to an independent entity since the creation of the Federal Reserve.

Today's vote is largely symbolic, however, since the Democrat-controlled Senate has refused to follow any House repeals.