National Right to Life Applauds IPAB Repeal

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 -- The National Right to Life Committee issued the following news release:

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, today applauded congressional repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The repeal of the bureaucratic body created by Obamacare was included in the broader appropriations measure, which passed the U.S. House and U.S. Senate early this morning.

"Little attention was given to the IPAB's sweeping powers to limit not just Medicare spending, but also healthcare paid for with nongovernmental dollars," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. "National Right to Life long opposed the IPAB because of the drastic limits it could impose on Medicare and the money Americans could spend out of their own funds to save their own lives and the lives of their families."

The board composed of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats was not only directed to limit Medicare spending, but also to limit private, nongovernmental spending on health care to a growth rate below medical inflation. Little attention was given to this more sweeping danger of rationing healthcare paid for with nongovernmental dollars. IPAB's powers went well beyond an effort to control Medicare spending. IPAB would have created drastic limits for the Department of Health and Human Services to impose on what Americans are allowed to spend out of their own funds to save their own lives and the lives of their families.

"National Right to Life extends special thanks to the large, bipartisan majority of Congress, led by Senate Majority Leader McConnell and others, for making repeal of the IPAB a priority," added Darla St. Martin, National Right to Life co-executive director.

Founded in 1968, National Right to Life, the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation's oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.