--- title: TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel' | TIME description: Will there be an unelected, appointed board deciding your treatment under the ACA? TIME explains the ins and out of Obamacare's 'Health Panel' canonical: https://time.com/video/QjM5tV3h/ og:title: TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel' og:description: Will there be an unelected, appointed board deciding your treatment under the ACA? TIME explains the ins and out of Obamacare's 'Health Panel' og:url: https://time.com/video/QjM5tV3h/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QjM5tV3h/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel' twitter:description: Will there be an unelected, appointed board deciding your treatment under the ACA? TIME explains the ins and out of Obamacare's 'Health Panel' twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QjM5tV3h/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel' > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel' [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QjM5tV3h.m3u8) (1:33)  _Published 2012-10-09. Will there be an unelected, appointed board deciding your treatment under the ACA? TIME explains the ins and out of Obamacare's 'Health Panel'_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:28 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Ted Cruz Going on Obamacare](/video/qCwlcWRC/) ### Ted Cruz Going on Obamacare [TIME Explains: The Obamacare Exchange Marketplace](/video/yQMgX9Nb/) ### TIME Explains: The Obamacare Exchange Marketplace [Government Default: Defunding Obamacare](/video/tJg89UDf/) ### Government Default: Defunding Obamacare --- ## Transcript Republicans keep saying that one thing that Obamacare will do is put government bureaucrats in charge of your healthcare instead of your doctor. Here's what you need to know. [ MUSIC ] A board of people at the government, an unelected board, appointed board, who are gonna decide what kind of treatments you ought have. The board that Romney is talking about is actually called the Independent Payment Advisory Board and the reason that it's important is because it affects Medicare. Medicare spending every year just keeps going up and up and up, and, under Obamacare, there are certain thresholds under which Medicare spending has to stay. If spending goes beyond those thresholds, this board will make recommendations to Congress about how much certain payments to doctors should be cut. If Congress doesn't like what the board recommends, Congress can come up with it's own recommendations for how to keep Medicare spending under control. But, if there's political gridlock and politicians and Congress can't agree on anything, the board's recommendations automatically become law. So the board will be made up of 15 different members. Many of them from the healthcare community and, while they are unelected and appointed by the President, they have to be confirmed by the Senate. Members of the board are, in theory, supposed to represent different factions within the healthcare community. Doctors, policy folks, people that represent payers, which are generally insurance companies. The recommendations that the board will make have to do with how much doctors and hospitals will get paid for providing services to Medicare beneficiaries. The board can't recommend that certain treatments won't be covered and it doesn't make decisions based on individual patient situations. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel'","description":"Will there be an unelected, appointed board deciding your treatment under the ACA? 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