Obama says he is only cutting payments to health care providers, not benefits to seniors. Can we cut payments to providers without cutting benefits? I don't think so.

Updated to include a listing of the actual cuts to Medicare.  

Here is the verbiage for claiming Romney is lying about the Obama cuts to Medicare: 

Mitt Romney’s campaign was brazenly misleading in its charge that the president’s health plan would cut medical services to older adults by reducing Medicare spending by $716 billion. The president’s savings will come mostly from smaller payments to managed care companies, which provide the same services as Medicare at a higher cost, and from slower growth in reimbursement rates to health care providers . . . .  NY Times

Question:  if you are an Obama believer,  rebut or answer this  --  how are these cuts,  and they are cuts,  to healthcare providers,  hospitals,  hospice care centers,  “rest homes” for our seniors,  and special in-home nursing care, affected without services being cut?  While Obama responds with,  “These institutions and providers will just have to work more efficiently,” the truth is that  real-world beneficiaries will simply receive less in terms of needed services and benefits.  Understand that providers and institutions receiving Medicare patients are already underpaid to the tune of 30%. 

From a post I wrote a week ago,  here are some pertinent facts about Obama's cuts.  As you read,  understand that none of these cuts are possible without effecting benefits and all Medicare cuts effect the elderly,  the poor and the indigent.

A  new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report updated the amount of money Obamacare robs out of Medicare from $500 billion to a whopping $716 billion between 2013 and 2022.   According to the CBO, the payment cuts in Medicare include:

• A $260 billion payment cut for hospital services affecting the aged and disabled, exclusively.
• A $39 billion payment cut for skilled nursing services effecting  private care facilities, nurses in mental health facilities,  and in-home care for the elderly and needy. 
• A $17 billion payment cut for hospice services  --  the poor who are near death are the ones affected by this cut (part of Palin's 'death panels'). 
• A $66 billion payment cut for home health services. Again,  it is the poor and needy most affected by this deduct. 
• A $33 billion payment cut for all other services.
• A $156 billion cut in payment rates in Medicare Advantage (MA); $156 billion is before considering interactions with other provisions. The House Ways and Means Committee was able to include interactions with other provisions, estimating the cuts to MA to be even higher, coming in at $308 billion.

Understand that Obama and the Dems added a "stealth" 216 billion dollars to the admitted $500 billion they spoke of during 2009.  

Conclusion:   Obama's health care reform cuts services to dying seniors in the hospice program,  cuts home health care services for seniors and the those handicapped.   Services demanding skilled nurses have been cut and hospital services for the indigent and immigrant population have been sorely cut.