Congress Should Repeal Obamacare’s Failed Innovation Center

Obamacare created several costly federal programs, but the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has become one of its clearest failures. The agency was supposed to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality through new payment models. Instead, it has spent billions of taxpayer dollars while producing little evidence that it has improved care or delivered savings.

Congress now has an opportunity to end this wasteful experiment. Rep. Aaron Bean has introduced H.R. 8293, the "Abolish the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Act," which would eliminate CMMI and restore greater accountability over federal healthcare policymaking.

CMMI Has Failed to Deliver Savings

CMMI was created in 2010 under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) with broad authority to test new payment and delivery models in Medicare and Medicaid. Supporters argued that the agency would find better ways to pay for care, reduce federal spending, and improve outcomes for patients.

That promise has not been met.

The Congressional Budget Office originally projected that CMMI would save $2.8 billion from 2011 through 2020. Instead, the program increased federal spending by $5.4 billion over that period. Current projections show CMMI adding another $1.3 billion in costs through 2030.

After more than a decade of operation, only a limited number of CMMI models have met the standards needed for nationwide expansion. That record is difficult to defend for an agency created specifically to find scalable reforms.

A Bureaucratic Workaround Around Congress

CMMI’s failures are not limited to its budget record. The agency also has unusual power to reshape major parts of Medicare and Medicaid without direct approval from Congress.

CMMI receives mandatory funding that largely shields it from the annual appropriations process. It can launch large demonstrations affecting patients, doctors, hospitals, and insurers. Under certain conditions, those models can be expanded nationally.

That structure gives unelected officials too much influence over healthcare policy. Major changes to Medicare and Medicaid should be debated openly by elected lawmakers, not advanced through bureaucratic experiments with limited congressional oversight.

Healthcare Reform Requires Accountability

Medicare and Medicaid serve seniors, low-income families, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable patients. Programs of that size and importance should not be used as laboratories for costly experiments that fail to deliver promised savings.

Federal healthcare reform should focus on lowering costs, protecting patients, reducing waste, and improving accountability. CMMI has had more than enough time to prove its value. Its record shows a program that has fallen short of its mission and imposed new costs on taxpayers.

Repealing CMMI would not end the need for healthcare reform. It would return that responsibility to Congress, where major policy decisions belong.

CFE Takeaway

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation was created to save taxpayer dollars and improve healthcare quality. After more than a decade, it has increased federal spending, produced few scalable reforms, and concentrated too much healthcare policymaking power inside the executive branch. Congress should advance H.R. 8293 and repeal one of Obamacare’s most wasteful failures.