CBO director: Health law will hurt innovation, ration care

The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a 15-member board of healthcare experts tasked with slowing the growth in Medicare spending. It has become a centerpiece of Mitt Romney's attack on the Affordable Care Act. He believes that it will be a "rationing" board for Medicare. Holtz-Eakin, now the president of the conservative American Action Forum, echoed the same critique in a policy paper set to be released Wednesday. The paper reiterates familiar conservative arguments: because the IPAB will reduce Medicare's payments to doctors, some doctors will stop accepting Medicare patients, and thus seniors will have a harder time finding treatment they need.