Accountability in Action: Repeal the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
Dear Representative/Senator,
We appreciate your leadership in advancing President Trump’s agenda to reduce government spending and restore accountability by reining in bureaucracy and rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in Washington.
That work is essential, and as you move forward to build on your success for the remainder of the 119th Congress, there is a clear opportunity to deliver more meaningful results by eliminating the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).
CMMI was created in the Affordable Care Act with a narrow mandate to test limited payment “models” for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program that would reduce costs and improve care. The Congressional Budget Office originally projected that CMMI would save $2.8 billion between 2011 and 2020. Instead, it lost $5.4 billion during that period and is projected to lose another $1.3 billion by 2030.
A June 2021 report found that only four of 174 CMMI models sufficiently met the required standards of reduced spending or improved quality to be expanded across Medicare nationwide. Common sense dictates that any federal program with such an abysmal rate of success should not be given any further opportunity to waste the taxpayers’ money.
Yet CMMI’s defenders argue the agency will eventually “get better.” Fifteen years of failure prove otherwise. No private enterprise with this record would be allowed to continue operating, let alone expand its authority.
Rather than correcting course, CMMI has expanded the scale, scope, and coerciveness of its models. They interfere with the decisions of doctors and patients about the best course of care, and override policy decisions made by Congress. They also disrupt care delivery and burden providers with administrative complexity and undermine patient choice.
CMMI has a guaranteed source of funding that gives unelected bureaucrats broad authority to make healthcare policy decisions without any obligation to succeed. The lack of accountability and transparency and disregard for outcomes are costly for taxpayers and dangerous for patients.
CMMI is a failure. It is time for Congress to shut it down.
Sincerely,
Tom Schatz
President
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
James L. Martin
Founder and Chairman
60 Plus Association
Tim Chapman
President
Advancing American Freedom
Saulius Anuzis
President
American Association of Senior Citizens
Phil Kerpen
President
American Commitment
Dee Stewart
President & CEO
Americans for a Balanced Budget
Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform
Rebecca Weber
CEO
Association of Mature American Citizens
Melissa Ortiz
Founder & Principal
Capability Consulting
Anthony Zagotta
President
Center for American Principles
Ryan Ellis
President
Center for a Free Economy
Jeff Mazzella
President
Center for Individual Freedom
Ginevra Joyce-Myers
Executive Director
Center for Innovation and Free Enterprise
Andrew Langer
Executive Director
Coalition Against Socialized Medicine
Bob Johnson
Senior Advisor
Commitment to Seniors
Jeremy Nighohossian
Senior Fellow & Economist
Competitive Enterprise Institute
James Edwards
Executive Director
Conservatives for Property Rights
Gerard Scimeca
Chairman
Consumer Action for a Strong Economy
Joel White
President
Council for Affordable Health Coverage
Eunie Smith
President
Eagle Forum of Alabama
George Landrith
President
Frontiers of Freedom
Beverly Gossage
President
HSA Benefits Consulting
Carol Davis
Chair
Illinois Conservative Union
Tom Giovanetti
President
Institute for Policy Innovation
Brian Balfour
Senior Vice President of Research
John Locke Foundation
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
Colin Hanna
President
Let Freedom Ring
Tim Jones
Former Speaker
Missouri House of Representatives
Founder
Leadership for America Institute
Pete Sepp
President
National Taxpayers Union
Tami L. Fitzgerald
J.D., Executive Director
NC Values Coalition
Sally C. Pipes
President & CEO
Pacific Research Institute
Drew White
Founder & CEO
Palisade Policy Group
Paul Gessing
President
Rio Grande Foundation
Trent England
Executive Director
Save Our States
Karen Kerrigan
President & CEO
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
Kerri Toloczko
Founder & Chair
Southwest Florida Center-Right Coalition
David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Paul Teller
President
Teller Strategies
Bob Carlstrom
President
The Carlstrom Group
Kent Kaiser
Executive Director
Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity
Steve Moore
Co-Founder
Unleash Prosperity Now
Kevin Riffe
Chairman
West Virginia Center-Right Coalition