Republicans Must Finish What They Started: Kill CMMI Now

Washington bureaucrats have burned through $5.4 billion of your money on a failed Obamacare experiment that was supposed to save taxpayers cash—but instead became just another bloated government program expanding federal control over your healthcare.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation isn’t innovating anything except new ways to waste money and micromanage doctors.

The GOP’s Unfinished Victory

Republicans dismantled key pieces of Obamacare during President Trump’s first term. They crushed the individual mandate—the most coercive provision forcing Americans to buy insurance they didn’t want. They killed the Cadillac tax that would have punished workers with employer-provided coverage. They eliminated the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel of unelected bureaucrats with sweeping authority to ration Medicare. And they axed the medical device tax that strangled innovation and drove up costs.

Each repeal saved billions. Each repeal restored freedom. Each repeal proved Republicans deliver results.

But the job isn’t done.

CMMI: Obamacare’s Biggest Remaining Scam

Tucked inside Obamacare, CMMI was sold as a “technocratic innovation hub” that would experiment with payment models to reduce costs and improve care. Classic Washington doublespeak.

The reality? CMMI has been a fiscal disaster from day one.

The Congressional Budget Office confirms CMMI increased federal spending by $5.4 billion between 2011 and 2020. Projections show another $1.3 billion wasted by 2030. This wasn’t supposed to cost money—it was supposed to save it.

Instead of targeted reforms, CMMI has become an unaccountable bureaucratic monster imposing mandatory experimental payment models on millions of seniors. Often without their knowledge. Frequently without their consent. And almost never with demonstrable benefit.

Voters See Through the Charade

The American people aren’t buying what CMMI is selling.

Recent polling reveals crushing public opposition to CMMI’s failures. Sixty-one percent of voters demand elimination of any CMMI model that fails to produce savings. Over three-quarters express serious concern that CMMI hands the federal government excessive control over personal healthcare decisions.

These aren’t marginal numbers. This is a mandate.

Americans want healthcare freedom, not Washington-imposed mandates. They want doctors making decisions, not distant bureaucrats running experiments. They want innovation driven by competition and choice, not by federal diktat.

CMMI represents everything voters rejected when they elected President Trump: centralized control, unaccountable spending, and broken promises from the Obama era.

The Political Imperative

Republicans face a crucial test as the 2026 midterms approach. Voters will ask: What have you actually accomplished?

The GOP has a strong record on Obamacare repeal—but it’s incomplete. Eliminating CMMI provides the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that Republican opposition to socialized medicine isn’t just rhetoric. It’s action.

This is how you build credibility with voters: Keep your promises. Show results. Point to concrete achievements that improved their lives and protected their freedoms.

Repealing CMMI gives Republicans another scalp to hang on the wall—proof positive they’re fighting government overreach and defending patients against bureaucratic control.

Real Innovation Requires Freedom

The premise behind CMMI was fundamentally flawed. Washington cannot innovate its way to better healthcare by forcing doctors and patients into rigid experimental models designed by federal planners.

Real innovation comes from the private sector. From competition. From doctors and patients working together to find what works best—not from bureaucrats in Washington testing theories on captive populations.

Eliminating CMMI doesn’t end innovation. It liberates it.

When you remove federal mandates, you create space for genuine market-driven solutions. Providers can experiment with new approaches. Patients can choose what works for them. Competition drives quality up and costs down—not because a government agency commanded it, but because that’s what markets do when allowed to function.

CMMI restricts provider flexibility and patient choice. It needs to go.

Strike Now While the Iron Is Hot

Congress is currently negotiating healthcare policy as Biden’s massively expanded Obamacare subsidies expire. This presents the ideal moment for Republicans to act decisively.

Don’t negotiate around CMMI. Don’t reform it. Don’t give it another chance.

Kill it.

Strike CMMI from the federal books completely. Shut down its offices. Send its bureaucrats packing. Eliminate this relic of the Obama era once and for all.

Every dollar CMMI spends is a dollar taken from hardworking taxpayers to fund experiments that don’t work. Every mandate it imposes is another restriction on healthcare freedom. Every day it continues operating is another day of failed progressive policy limiting American choice.

The Path Forward Is Clear

Republicans don’t need to overthink this. The case for eliminating CMMI is ironclad:

It has failed its mission completely. It has wasted billions in taxpayer money. It has expanded federal control over healthcare decisions. It has imposed unwanted mandates on millions of seniors. And voters overwhelmingly want it gone.

This isn’t complicated policy calculus. This is common sense.

The GOP already proved it can dismantle Obamacare piece by piece. The individual mandate? Gone. The Cadillac tax? Eliminated. The Independent Payment Advisory Board? Terminated. The medical device tax? History.

CMMI is next.

Deliver What Americans Demand

The American people sent a clear message: They want accountability for government waste. They want freedom to make their own healthcare choices. And they want leaders who follow through on promises.

Repealing CMMI delivers on all three.

It holds Washington accountable for a program that burned billions while achieving nothing. It restores healthcare freedom by eliminating federal mandates and experimental controls. And it proves Republicans mean what they say when they promise to fight Obamacare.

This is the opportunity sitting in front of the GOP right now. The political conditions are perfect. The policy case is airtight. The public support is overwhelming.

All that remains is action.

Republicans: Finish the job. Repeal CMMI. Send this failed Obama-era experiment exactly where it belongs—into the dustbin of history alongside every other broken promise of socialized medicine.

Your voters are watching. Show them you’re serious.