As part of their broader campaign to repeal health care reform, House Republicans are determined to kill off an independent board that is supposed to help rein in federal spending on Medicare.

Their rhetoric is predictably distorted: charging that “15 unelected bureaucrats” should not be able to “ration care.” In truth, the independent payment advisory board of nongovernmental experts is specifically precluded from rationing care, and Congress, not the board, has the final say on what cuts should be made.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that repealing the board would drive up federal spending on Medicare by $3.1 billion over the course of a decade, but the board is especially important as a longer-term backstop against rising costs. Nevertheless, the repeal bill has already passed two committees, with some Democratic support, and it is likely to pass the full House this month. A repeal bill pending in the Senate seems unlikely to pass, but there are no guarantees in an election year.

The reform law requires the board, starting in 2014, to make recommendations to reduce federal spending on Medicare whenever its growth rate is projected to exceed a specified target. The board is not only prohibited from making proposals that would ration care, it cannot call for changes in Medicare benefits or eligibility, or increases in premiums or cost-sharing.