House vote delays cut in Medicare pay for doctors
Currently, the House has already submitted the bill to President Barack Obama to delay the approaching cut on the Medicare pay to doctors. This has apparently threatened to disturb the care for the U.S. elderly.
This action that is designed to prevent the scheduled 25 percent cut to doctors on January 1 is said to cost for about $19 billion. This will be paid for by shifting money from the revamped health care. Generally the money will come from making the rules stricter especially on tax credits in health care law that is intended to prevent waste. This will make the premiums become more affordable for millions.
The House voted yesterday with a result of 409-2. This came one day after the Senate finally approved the said measure through voice voting. Now, the next step is awaited, with the bill now passed to Pres. Obama. Prior to this, Obama said he would want a quick passage of the said measure since he thought that it was an important step to push the stabilization of Medicare forward.
These doctor cuts are actually results of a budget balancing law during the 1990s. The said law tried but unfortunately failed in keeping the Medicare spending in line by means of automatic reductions. There was a repeated step done by the Congress to put aside the cuts. This led later on to lawmakers having to act every month.
This time around, the Congress is under an extreme pressure. Medical groups made an estimate that there would be two-thirds of doctors who would stop accepting new Medicare patients. On the other hand, health care for the military force, together with their families and other retirees were also in danger because the payments for Tricare are connected to that of Medicare.
According to Cecil B. Wilson, the president of the American Medical Association, this delay of one year is by fact essential to preserve the access of seniors to physician care by 2011. He further said, "Many physicians made clear that this year's roller coaster ride, caused by five delays of this year's cut, forced them to make difficult practice changes like limiting the number of Medicare patients they could treat."
The Congress will be using the 12-month reprieve in order to come up with a new and better way of having the doctors paid for the great quality care.