It’s a favorite talking point among opponents of reform that the new health reform law will threaten Medicare or weaken guaranteed benefits for seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans – when the truth is that law strengthens Medicare and overall health care for our seniors.
 
When it comes to Medicare Advantage, the new law simply puts these privately-administered plans on equal footing with traditional Medicare by cutting wasteful subsidies that pad insurance company profits. And a news story out yesterday makes it clear, in the words of the insurance company executives and health care experts, that Medicare Advantage plans and the seniors who use them won’t be hurt by the health reform law:

From Bloomberg News:

Stephen J. Hemsley, chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group Inc., told analysts on an earnings call this week that reduced payments won’t keep the company’s products from competing with Medicare insurance offered directly from the government. Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services secretary, told a House Appropriations subcommittee that she expects “a robust array of choices for Medicare recipients.”

More:

Insurers offering the plans could pressure health providers to lower their prices, McGlynn said. Also, Senate Democrats and the White House “did some smart things” to mitigate the effect of the Advantage cuts in the final version of the health law, said Robert A. Berenson, a former Medicare official now at the Urban Institute, a research foundation in Washington.

The law lets Advantage plans operating in areas where Medicare’s costs are lower than private insurers’ costs be paid more than the government program, said Berenson, who served in the Clinton administration. Plans where Medicare’s costs are higher than private insurers’ costs would get less.

Beginning in 2014, Advantage plans can earn 5 percent bonus payments if they implement programs to improve the health of their customers or the efficiency of care, he said. Insurers could qualify if they created programs to manage chronic diseases, for example, or new payment systems for doctors.

More broadly, the health reform law signed by the President strengthens Medicare by taking aggressive new steps to fight waste, fraud, and abuse within the system and reforming the payment system to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and reduce health care acquired infections.  Together, these proposals will extend the financial health of Medicare by 12 years.  On top of that, not a penny of Medicare taxes or trust funds will be used for health reform.
 
In fact, the law is packed with improvements for all seniors. To name a few, the bill:

• Closes the “donut hole” in Medicare prescription drug coverage;
• Provides for free preventive care under Medicare, whereas seniors today often pay 20 percent of these costs;
• Invests in innovations in new ways to treat and control chronic disease;
• Creates news standards to improve the quality of care in nursing homes.

To learn more about the benefits that the Affordable Care Act offers America’s seniors, see our fact sheet.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

The President issued the following statement after Republicans blocked Wall Street Reform from even coming up for debate:

“I am deeply disappointed that Senate Republicans voted in a block against allowing a public debate on Wall Street reform to begin.  Some of these Senators may believe that this obstruction is a good political strategy, and others may see delay as an opportunity to take this debate behind closed doors, where financial industry lobbyists can water down reform or kill it altogether.  But the American people can’t afford that.  A lack of consumer protections and a lack of accountability on Wall Street nearly brought our economy to its knees, and helped cause the pain that has left millions of Americans without jobs and without homes.  The reform that both parties have been working on for a year would prevent a crisis like this from happening again, and I urge the Senate to get back to work and put the interests of the country ahead of party.”

The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) has a new survey of 68 of its members out today that shows that the group, which is made up of private sector and industry trade association economists, is newly optimistic about hiring and job growth.  That’s good news – and right in-line with what many public and private forecasters have had to say about our economy recently.

But you may have also noticed an item in their survey that stands in pretty stark contrast to what leading economists have found.  According to NABE:

• The vast majority (73%) of respondents “reported the fiscal stimulus in February 2009 has had no impact on employment to date.”

Now we know that that the Recovery Act hasn’t just had an impact on employment so far – it’s had a BIG impact on employment.  From private forecasters like Moody’s Economy.com and IHS Global to public economists like the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, economists across the board have gone on-the-record saying that the Recovery Act is already responsible for millions of jobs nationwide and contributing to the economic growth that is fueling our recovery.  Here are just a few of them:

• IHS Global Insight chief economist Nariman Behravesh: Without the stimulus, said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, 3 million more Americans would be out of work and the national unemployment rate, just below 10 percent, would be 12 percent - or higher. “There is no doubt that it had an impact,’’ Behravesh said. “When there is a shortfall in private sector demand, there is a role for government to step in and fill the gap.’’ [The Boston Globe, 3/7/2010]
• Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Bank: "The stimulus worked," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Bank. Without it, "the unemployment rate would probably be closer to 11 percent and the economy might not have grown at all last year.” [ABC News, 2/18/10]
• Economist Stephen Herzenberg: “Cut through all the numbers, though, and this is what you find: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act saved us from plunging into a second Great Depression… The Recovery Act brought the economy back from the brink.  And these figures probably underestimate its impact, because they don't take market psychology into account. When the legislation passed, the economy was plunging at a pace similar to that of the 1930s. If Congress had sat on its hands, unemployment now could easily be 12 percent to 15 percent - and on its way to 20 percent.”  [Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/17/10]
• Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com: “The catalyst for the transition from recession to recovery was the unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus provided by government policymakers...The Recovery Act’s expanded unemployment insurance benefits, financial aid to state governments, tax cuts for households and businesses, and tax credits for home purchases all contributed to the turn in the economy. The recovery has gained traction in recent months as the sources of GDP growth have broadened to include consumer spending, business investment and exports. The job market has also stabilized. After declining by some 8.4 million jobs between December 2007 and February 2010, payroll employment expanded by 162,000 in March.” [Testimony before Senate Finance Committee, 4/14/2010]

And economic experts at major trade associations say that the Recovery Act has had a substantial impact on employment in their industry:

• Associated General Contractors economist Ken Simonson: “’The stimulus is saving construction jobs, driving demand for new equipment and delivering better and more efficient infrastructure,’ said Ken Simonson, an economist with Associated General Contractors, which represents a large part of the construction industry.  Simonson calculated that roughly 15,000 jobs have been created or preserved for every $1 billion the government has spent on infrastructure projects, which is well above the Association’s year-ago estimate of 9,700 jobs. He said that stimulus-funded road construction projects alone have created 280,000 jobs over the past year, as well as an unknown number of ancillary jobs for subcontractors supplying equipment and raw materials.”  [San Diego Union Tribune, 2/17/10]
• Rhone Resch, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association: “One year ago today, President Obama visited a solar installation to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The purpose of the bill was to stimulate immediate job growth with a strong emphasis on clean energy technologies like solar. And that is exactly what happened. In 2009, the Recovery Act helped the solar industry create 18,000 new American jobs. More than 50 new solar energy manufacturing plants are under construction now with the support of ARRA.” [Solar Energy Industries Association, 2/17/10]

So how exactly did this group of 68 NABE members get it so wrong?  Well, there is more than meets the eye here… 

If you take a closer look at the survey, you will find that they were asked about conditions at their company:

• The NABE April 2010 Industry Survey report presents the responses of 68 NABE members to a survey conducted between March 25, 2010, and April 10, 2010, on business conditions in their firm or industry and reflects first-quarter 2010 results and the near-term outlook.

Now keep in mind that the Recovery Act was specifically designed to get the most employment bang for the taxpayer buck through a combination of targeted relief for hard-hit families and businesses and seed money to jump-start job-creating projects across a wide array of industries and communities.  Those targeted investments multiply down the supply chain and across industries to grow the economy as a whole.  What it wasn’t designed to be is a handout to every company across the country – so we wouldn’t expect that every company surveyed would have received Recovery Act funding.  But interestingly, if 73 percent of the companies surveyed saw no impact on employment to-date, that could mean more than 25 percent of them did see a direct employment benefit – which would be a pretty impressive sign that the Recovery Act has had a broad reach so far.

And keep in mind that the Recovery Act hasn’t just created jobs directly by paying salaries for workers.  Recent analysis from the Council of Economic Advisors found that about half of the jobs created by the Recovery Act so far were as a result of tax relief and income supports like unemployment benefits – money that doesn’t go to companies, but to consumers.  When consumers have more money in their pockets, they spend it purchasing from companies just like the ones surveyed by NABE.  So while the economic experts at these companies may not have seen the dollars themselves, they are no doubt seeing the impact of them as they, along with other companies nationwide, have helped create the roughly 2.5 million jobs supported by the Recovery Act so far.  

But don’t just take our word for it.  This is what NABE had to say as recently as last month about how the Recovery Act is helping grow the economy:

• "Eighty-three percent believe that GDP is currently higher than it would have been without the 2009 stimulus package (ARRA)."
• And more than half of the respondents to that survey “view[ed] the 2009 stimulus package as a positive factor for the economy over the longer term.”

Liz Oxhorn is Recovery Act Communications Director

Today is World Intellectual Property Day, a perfect time to update readers about all the work we are doing to protect intellectual property and do so in a way that fosters creativity and job creation.

The last time I wrote was to tell you I was starting my new job as the U.S.  Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator for the White House, and to ask for your input on what the U.S. government should be doing to protect the ideas and creativity of the American public.

As we move forward with putting together an effective and coordinated IP strategy, I realize just how much we have to consider.  We have been pouring over the tremendous response we received from you.  Today, we are posting all of your comments on our website so that everyone can see for themselves what we are reviewing.

During the past month, I have also met with dozens of companies throughout the country to whom intellectual property is very important.  I have heard concerns from the semi-conductor industry, tractor manufacturers, all facets of the music industry —from the recording studios to publishers, composers, and performers — the apparel industry, cement manufacturers, product safety certifiers, pharmaceutical companies, aerospace industry, labor unions, movie industry, cell phone manufacturers, software companies,  car part suppliers, internet auction sites,  biotech companies and many more. The number of industry sectors hurt by rampant counterfeiting and piracy is unacceptable. As a result of these meetings, I came away with a greater appreciation of the myriad of concerns out there.  And I intend to continue to meet with groups that have a stake in all that we are doing here in Washington as we move forward with developing and implementing the White House enforcement strategy.

In recognition of World Intellectual Property Day, the US government is engaging in activities all over the world to highlight the importance of intellectual property and our commitment to protecting it. 

Our law enforcement agencies, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, announced today the formation of a national network of law enforcement personnel.  

• The Department of Justice announced that the FBI is increasing its manpower that focuses of IP significantly, by creating regional IP squads in major cities around the nation and adding an additional 20 new agents to those squads. 
• In addition, the DOJ announced that it will be adding 15 new prosecutors throughout the country to add to its current force of 200 prosecutors specially trained to handle IP enforcement. 
• In collaboration, the Department of Homeland Security announced that its multi-agency IPR Center is creating partnerships with 70 federal, state and local law enforcement in 22 cities to collaborate on IP enforcement actions. 

And ICE announced the efforts of a major sweep – Operation Spring cleaning - that resulted so far in 45 arrests, the seizure of 701,384 counterfeit items valued at $44 million. 

Many other agencies that also work on IP enforcement are joining this united effort.  Secretary Clinton and Secretary Locke and Ambassador Ron Kirk are issuing statements highlighting the importance of intellectual property. There are also a numbers of events taking place today where senior government officials are speaking on intellectual property, including Ambassador Miriam Sapiro of USTR at the National Press Club, Under Secretary of State Robert Hormats at the US Chamber of Commerce. I will be speaking at an event with the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, the head of USTR, Ambassador Ron Kirk, the head of our US Patent and Trademark Office David Kappos and other senior Commerce officials, including Under Secretary Francisco Sanchez.  And embassies throughout the world are reaffirming those same sentiments in statements issued by their ambassadors and in a number of educational programs they are holding. 

The President has made clear that strong enforcement of America’s intellectual property is a critical part of our plan to promote exports and create jobs.  I look forward to continuing our dialogue and utilizing the expertise out there to harness and protect what has always been one of America’s greatest strengths – the diversity of great ideas.

Victoria Espinel is the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
 

The White House and Department of Education are kicking off the final phase of the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge – your input. 

Starting today at WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement you can view a three minute video and short essay from each of the six high school finalists and rate them from 1-5.  President Obama will choose from one of the top three publicly rated schools to visit and deliver the commencement address this spring.

The Commencement Challenge launched on February 19th, when the White House and Department of Education invited public high schools across the country to submit applications to have President Obama speak at their graduation. Over 1,000 high schools submitted applications, demonstrating how they are making significant strides on personal responsibility, academic excellence and college readiness, and how they are working toward the President’s national goal of having the most college graduates by 2020.

The six finalists, Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, KS, Clark Montessori in Cincinnati, OH, Denver School of Science and Technology in Denver, Colorado, Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, CA, Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, MI and MAST Academy in Miami, FL, were announced on April 9th. Over the last two weeks, the Get Schooled Foundation, which includes founding partners Viacom and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, worked with each school to create short videos highlighting how the school best fulfills the Commencement Challenge’s criteria.  Starting today, you can watch the videos, read the essays and submit your ratings.  Your top-three rated schools will go to the President and from there  he will select one national winner.

The Commencement Challenge highlighted stories of success in schools across the country and I am especially proud of these six finalists for their dedication to producing and promoting academic excellence. Visit WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement anytime between 8 AM EDT on Monday, April 26th through 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, April 29, and help decide the best high school for the President’s first annual high school commencement address.

Arne Duncan is the Secretary of Education
 

Each year on April 25 the world recognizes World Malaria Day to call attention to the disease that kills nearly one million people each year and, negatively affects educational achievement, worker productivity, and economic development, and to mobilize action to combat it. This year, a success story in development assistance is emerging in Africa, with global donors, national governments and local partners making major strides against malaria.

Across the continent, malaria control programs are scaling up efforts to protect people from this deadly disease and to diagnosis and treat infections with highly effective new drugs. Emerging data are showing significant reductions in malarial illnesses and deaths.

Partnerships with national governments and development partners, including, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank Booster Program for Malaria Control, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the UN Envoy for Malaria, which has mobilized thousands of partners with the goal of reaching the universal coverage of long lasting insecticide treated bed-nets by the end of this year, have made these successes possible.

The results in global malaria prevention and control are encouraging, but, as before, this progress is fragile and can be easily reversed. Therefore, as we expand and consolidate these gains, it is vitally important to ensure that our efforts not only sustain momentum, but also continue to adapt to emerging challenges.

Today, I am proud to release the U.S. Government six-year strategy to combat malaria (pdf) globally. By 2014, our goal is to halve malaria illnesses and deaths in 70 percent of at-risk populations, by accelerating and intensifying malaria control efforts in the high burden countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The release of the President’s Malaria Initiative whole-of-government global strategy also outlines contributions to stop the spread of multi-drug resistance in Southeast Asia and the Americas; increase emphasis on strategic integration of malaria prevention and treatment activities with programs for maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, neglected tropical diseases, and tuberculosis, through multilateral collaboration to achieve internationally-accepted goals; and intensify efforts to strengthen health systems.

The U.S. Government’s commitment to fight malaria is a key component of President Obama’s foreign assistance strategy and his Administration’s Global Health Initiative -- a global commitment to invest in healthy and productive lives and maximize the sustainable health impact the United States achieves for every dollar invested.

Over the past 50 years the U.S government has been a major player in coordinated global efforts to beat back major killers like smallpox, polio and measles. With sufficient and sustained international commitment, we continue to achieve sustainable progress for malaria as well.

Rear Adm. (RET) Tim Ziemer is the coordinator of U.S. Global Malaria Programs

As the auto industry and financial markets begin to stabilize, the President says the government’s emergency interventions are now winding down.  He pledges that real reform, particularly on Wall Street, must now begin.

You may have seen an Associated Press story published this morning about the new report from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. The AP took a decidedly breathless tack in describing the report – and of course their story is now popping up in some familiar outlets that always opposed reform.
 
In reality, the Actuary’s report is little changed from a previous report issued months ago by the same office, and it underscores many of the major strengths of the new health reform legislation, as we noted here.
 
If you haven’t already seen it, here’s a piece from TIME Magazine on the same report. It offers a lot more context on the report itself, and should help put to rest some of the concerns kicked up by the AP’s coverage. 

"Another Critical Health Reform Report," Kate Pickert Friday, April 23, 2010
 
Health reform proponents got another round of bad headlines today, as the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report saying that the new law will increase costs. According to an AP story by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, the report is "a worrisome assessment for Democrats," showing that while cost savings could come sometime after 2020, there is little hope of reducing spending in the next ten years. This sounds pretty bad, right?
 
Well, it is - if you consider it in a vacuum. The truth is the actuary who wrote the report, Richard S. Foster, authored a nearly identical report released January 8, 2010. Some of his figures changed in the interim - he wrote about the Senate bill in January and this week's report includes changes made by the reconciliation package that altered the Senate bill - but overall, Foster's assessment is the same.
 
The health reform law will increase overall spending in the near future because more people will have insurance and therefore access to medical care. Those who are now going without care because of cost will, post-implementation of reform, seek care, insurance or Medicaid card in hand. Reductions in Medicare reimbursements to providers may cause some to limit the Medicare patients they accept; future cuts to Medicare reimbursements called for in the bill may never happen due to political pressure; the long-term care insurance program created by the law may be unsustainable. This is all important, truthful information and provides a worthy counter-balance to those celebrating the health reform law's less contentious implications. But it's worth stressing what this report is not - surprising new information that was kept under wraps during the health reform debate. For instance, I wrote a story back in December about the potential pitfalls of the long-term care program.
 
Ezra Klein, who supports health reform, says he thinks "the report makes health-care reform look pretty good." I don't know if I'd go that far, but Klein does point out a few more things to consider when evaluating Foster's report - and news coverage of it:
 

The Congressional Budget Office's estimates look at the deficit. CMS is looking at total national health expenditures. This often confuses people into thinking that there's conflict between the two sets of numbers when there isn't: CBO says that federal spending is going to go up to pay for the coverage expansion, but that savings and revenue will go up by even more, leading to a net reduction in the federal deficit.
 
CMS is looking only at the spending side. And here's what it finds: In 2019, implementation of the Affordable Care Act will reduce the ranks of the uninsured by 34 million people and increase nation health expenditures by 1 percent.
 
One percent.
 
And that 1 percent is actually 1 percent and falling: When the legislation is fully implemented in 2016, the spending increase will be 2 percent. But cost controls kick in over those years and bring it down to 1 percent. Assuming the trend holds, the second decade will see national health expenditures fall below what spending would've been if the bill hadn't passed. So that's the bottom line of the report: We're covering 34 million people and come 2019, spending is expected to be one percentage point -- and falling -- above what it would've been if we'd done nothing. 

The bottom line is that no one knows for sure if health reform will "bend the curve" of increasing medical spending. The law will experiment with cost controls that economists and health policy experts think could curb spending, but there's little certainty and a lot of politics likely to interfere while reform is being implemented and tweaked. Here's what Karen and I wrote recently about cost controls called for in the law.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

In his June 4th, 2009 address in Cairo, President Obama announced that the U.S. would host a Summit on Entrepreneurship to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations, and entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world. The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship will be held this coming Monday and Tuesday, April 26-27th at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

Co-hosted by the Departments of State and Commerce, the Summit will bring together more than 275 participants from over 50 countries around the world – from Morocco to Indonesia, Uganda to Kazakhstan, France to India. They include men and women from many different walks of life – business leaders from diverse sectors, educators, community organizers, and social entrepreneurs among others. With attendance by the President and various Cabinet Secretaries and senior U.S. Government officials, this Summit is meant to highlight the importance of entrepreneurship to fostering economic opportunity and community development. And, as the President said in Cairo almost one year ago, education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century, and the Summit will help build relationships that lead to greater opportunity at home and abroad.

We have some amazing participants from all around the world attending the Summit. They’re here to identify ways to advance economic and social entrepreneurship, build networks among stakeholders in entrepreneurship, and provide an opportunity to establish partnerships that advance entrepreneurship. Check out some great coverage of the participants here and get additional information at www.entrepreneurship.gov/summit.

We want you to be able to participate in this discussion, too. At the Summit on Entrepreneurship, GOOD, an independent media platform and community for the globally-conscious people, businesses, and NGOs will interview featured entrepreneurs to capture their perspectives on how to advance entrepreneurship around the world. You can also watch the President’s remarks here on whitehouse.gov/live.

Jenny Urizar is Director for Global Engagement at the National Security Council