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SENATE ENDANGERS MEDICARE
LA Times - With budget anxieties pervading the congressional healthcare debate, the Senate on Wednesday sidetracked popular legislation that would have increased Medicare payments to doctors by nearly $250 billion over the next decade.
Voicing concern about adding that much money to the federal deficit, a coalition of 12 centrist Democrats, one independent and all the Senate's Republicans voted to block consideration of the bill, at least for now.
The goal of the bill -- to overturn a scheduled 21% reduction in doctors' fees under Medicare -- enjoys broad bipartisan support. But opponents in both parties objected that the measure included no tax hikes or spending cuts to offset its price tag. . .
But with the vote, Senate Democrats delivered a clear and important message to the AMA that the organization's top priority cannot be included in the bill without jeopardizing an overhaul that many in the medical profession believe is crucial to preserving the nation's healthcare system. . .
The bill before the Senate was an effort to fix a long-standing quirk in Medicare law that cuts doctors' fees when program spending outpaces economic growth. Congress has routinely intervened year after year to overturn the cuts at the behest of the AMA, in an attempt to keep doctors from dropping Medicare patients.
Voicing concern about adding that much money to the federal deficit, a coalition of 12 centrist Democrats, one independent and all the Senate's Republicans voted to block consideration of the bill, at least for now.
The goal of the bill -- to overturn a scheduled 21% reduction in doctors' fees under Medicare -- enjoys broad bipartisan support. But opponents in both parties objected that the measure included no tax hikes or spending cuts to offset its price tag. . .
But with the vote, Senate Democrats delivered a clear and important message to the AMA that the organization's top priority cannot be included in the bill without jeopardizing an overhaul that many in the medical profession believe is crucial to preserving the nation's healthcare system. . .
The bill before the Senate was an effort to fix a long-standing quirk in Medicare law that cuts doctors' fees when program spending outpaces economic growth. Congress has routinely intervened year after year to overturn the cuts at the behest of the AMA, in an attempt to keep doctors from dropping Medicare patients.
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