Medicare pricing is frozen as Congress leaves town
"Congress"06/28/2008
With the White House threatening a veto and tempers flaring over doctors' payments, the break was welcomed.
By PAUL KANE,
Washington Post
June 27, 2008
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday gave a reprieve to thousands of doctors expecting to get hit Tuesday with a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments.
The Department of Health and Human Services will essentially freeze the current pricing system because Congress left town Friday for a midsummer break without approving a price fix, Secretary Mike Leavitt announced. Congressional aides said the freeze could last 10 days.
But there was no sign of cooling off on Capitol Hill on Friday. Each side accused the other of playing politics with Medicare, the program that covers many health care costs for the nation's elderly.
Feelings were particularly raw after a Thursday night Senate vote in which members yelled at one another on the floor and left Democrats one vote short of the 60 needed to pass their version of the Medicare fix.
"That display last night on the floor is something I've never seen," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
The roll call vote was held open for an additional 25 minutes so Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., could make it to the chamber from their fundraiser at a nearby hotel.
Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher, grew irritated about waiting for Clinton, the last to arrive, and called for "regular order" to shut down the vote. That led to a shouting match with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who yelled "Who are you?" and mockingly called his colleague a "great baseball man."
The payment cuts to doctors are part of a 1997 balanced budget deal that trims the money going to Medicare, but the doctors have regularly staved off the cuts.
They argue -- through their lobby, the American Medical Association and the AARP -- that slashed payments would prompt many doctors to drop out of the system. Private insurance companies make a similar argument for Medicare Advantage, a program of private fee-for-service insurers and HMOs, that is targeted in the Democrats' bill.
By reducing funding for Medicare Advantage, the Democrats would pay for postponing the pay cut to doctors for 18 months. The legislation could result in $14 billion less for insurers over five years, though an estimate by a conservative House Republican caucus put the tally at $47.5 billion over 11 years.
The White House has threatened a veto over Medicare Advantage cuts.
Negotiations between Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance Committee chairman, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, broke down when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., decided to push ahead with the House bill after it passed that body Tuesday by a veto-proof margin.
Aides said Friday that no new talks had begun, and after the Senate reconvenes July 7, it will have three days to pass a fix before the freeze is lifted.
By reducing funding for Medicare Advantage, the Democrats would pay for postponing the pay cut to doctors for 18 months. The legislation could result in $14 billion less for insurers over five years, though an estimate by a conservative House Republican caucus put the tally at $47.5 billion over 11 years.
The White House has threatened a veto over Medicare Advantage cuts.
Negotiations between Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance Committee chairman, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, broke down when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., decided to push ahead with the House bill after it passed that body Tuesday by a veto-proof margin.
Aides said Friday that no new talks had begun, and after the Senate reconvenes July 7, it will have three days to pass a fix before the freeze is lifted.