Issa Accuses HHS of Using Medicare Pilot to ‘Buy’ Election for Obama

An $8.3 billion Medicare demonstration project run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was faulted by government auditors for its large size and a design that might hamper conclusive results, prompting a key congressional overseer to blast it as an attempt by the Obama administration to curry favor with voters. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, convened a hearing on Wednesday to explore whether the Health and Human Services Department’s three-year demonstration project to give bonuses to private health plans that upgrade patient services was “designed to offset Obamacare’s massive cuts to Medicare Advantage ahead of an election.” This could be a case of the Democrats “playing politics with seniors’ health care,” Issa said...