Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow – 3/1/2012 9:05 AM

A seniors’ advocacy group is pleased that a push is well under way to do away with ObamaCare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

The panel under ObamaCare would decide whether to pay for certain drugs, treatments, or surgeries on the basis of cost. The fear is that that would mean patients in need would be denied certain treatment because the group believes the prices are too high. But the Medicare Decisions Accountability Act, a bipartisan effort, would repeal the IPAB.

A 17-5 margin from a House subcommittee has already approved the measure, and Jim Martin of the 60 Plus Association tells OneNewsNow that even some top Democrats are opposed to the board.

“There’s one reason and one reason alone that they are: they saw a lot of their colleagues go down to defeat in 2010,” he offers. “They see that ObamaCare threatens their careers, and I think this vote is an attempt, certainly by the Democrats, to distance themselves from their own creation — that is the creation of ObamaCare.”

Proponents of the board take exception to the vote, noting that Congress can override the board’s decisions, but as Martin points out, “it takes a super majority to overrule them. And to get a super majority in the House to overrule, that’s just not feasible; it just won’t happen.”

He calls the 15-member panel “pallbearers for the Medicare system as it’s being taken to the graveyard.”

The administration has not nominated any member to the board in the two years since the board became law. According to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, in the absence of a board, sole power will be given to the secretary of Health and Human Services.

Hear is the audio here: Charlie Butts: IPAB