Medicare ‘doctor fix’ goes down in flames-Reid blames AMA
Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill that would secure Medicare payments to physicians for the next ten years has gone down to defeat in a procedural vote, with 53 Senators voting against.
Rather than taking the heat for mistakenly announcing the bill prior to counting the votes, Reid immediately began blaming the AMA for the loss, telling colleagues that the medical association promised him 27 Republican votes that were never there.
But AMA president, J. James Rohack, isn’t having any of it.
The reference to 27 votes was made well before S. 1776 was introduced and in the context of bipartisan health reform legislation. The majority of Democrats and Republicans support SGR repeal for seniors and baby boomers, but today’s vote appears to be becoming the victim of Senate politics. Congress needs to fulfill its obligation to seniors, baby boomers and military families, and repeal of the SGR is an essential element for health reform to succeed.
Via The Hill
‘SGR’ (sustainable growth rate) refers to the legislation passed in 1997 that ties Medicare reimbursement rates to wage growth rather than inflation. Since 2003, Congress has been voting, on an annual basis, to prevent the law from kicking in and cutting Medicare rates to physicians. As a result, doctors are scheduled to take a 21% pay cut from Medicare on January 1, 2010, with more cuts to follow.
Reid claims that he will revisit the ten-year plan following passage of a health care reform bill. In the meantime, he expects to go with the one year reprieve included in the Baucus bill, allowing the doctors to avoid the cuts for one more year.
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This is so tacky.
The post or the legislative attempt?
In response to another comment. See in context »Reid is another guy who has never had a real taxpaying private sector job……been sucking off the taxpayers his whole life.
The AMA represents 15-18% of physicians now. I expect that number to be even less after this fiasco. They sold out to Obama and got squat. No liability reform (just vague promises of study programs) and no Medicare reimbursement fix.