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Sid9 · Guest

July 15, 2008

Bush Vetoes Medicare Bill

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:35 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress on Tuesday rejected President Bush's veto of
legislation protecting doctors from a 10.6 percent cut in their
reimbursement rates when treating Medicare patients.

The override vote in the House was a lopsided 383-41, easily meeting the
two-thirds threshold needed to nullify the president's veto. About an hour
later, the Senate voted to override, 70-26.

Bush has vetoed bills nine times, and Congress has had the muscle to
override him only on a water projects bill and twice on farm legislation.

Lawmakers were under pressure from doctors and the elderly patients they
serve to void the rate cut, which kicked in on July 1. The cut is based on a
formula that establishes lower reimbursement rates when Medicare spending
levels exceed established targets.

The president said he supported rescinding the pay cut, but he objected to
the way lawmakers would finance the plan, largely by reducing spending on
private health plans serving the elderly and disabled.

''I support the primary objective of this legislation, to forestall
reductions in physician payments,'' Bush said in a statement. ''Yet taking
choices away from seniors to pay physicians is wrong.''

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt also expressed his
displeasure.

''I was disappointed by tonight's vote to override the

Presidents veto of the Medicare bill,'' Leavitt said.

''Medicare is drifting towards disaster,'' Leavitt said. ''Congress has once
again given into special interests and shown an unwillingness to change the
program's path and take on the important task of entitlement reform.''

He said he supports ''fully reimbursing physicians at pre-reduction Medicare
payment levels and we want to fix the way physicians are paid. We do not
support many other provisions in the bill which will hurt both taxpayers and
Medicare beneficiaries. ''

He said the bill undermines the very successful Medicare Part D prescription
drug benefit by harming competition and driving up prices and it will reduce
the ability of many to choose a private plan.

About 600,000 doctors treat Medicare patients. Many said they would no
longer accept new elderly patients if the cuts stood.

Democratic lawmakers used a variety of terms to describe Bush's veto earlier
Tuesday. Some called it ''meaningless.'' Others called it ''mean-spirited.''

''His days of doing us harm are very, very limited,'' said Rep. Charles
Rangel, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Instead of a cut, the legislation would keep Medicare rates for doctors
where they are for the rest of 2008 and would increase them by 1.1 percent
in 2009. The legislation generates the revenue necessary to pay doctors more
by reducing spending on private health insurance plans. Those plans serve
more than 9 million people through the Medicare Advantage program.

Insurers and the Bush administration argued the changes Democrats sought
would lead to benefit cuts and to fewer Medicare Advantage plans. The
Congressional Budget Office estimated that over the course of five years,
enrollment in Medicare Advantage would grow to 12 million rather than to
14.3 million.

Bush said the bill would reduce ''access, benefits and choices for all
beneficiaries.''

''We don't have to punish the patients to help the doctors,'' said Rep. Mike
Rogers, R-Mich.

However, Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans believe the government's
payments to the plans are too generous and that those payments drive up
costs for taxpayers as well as the 44 million participants in the program.

''We wasted no time in reversing the president's carelessness and protecting
our nation's doctors and the patients they treat,'' said Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. ''This responsible and overdue Medicare fix is now
law.''

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said the federal government spends more on
patients in Medicare Advantage than on comparable patients in traditional
Medicare, leading to billions of dollars in additional costs annually.

''We take some of that unnecessary waste and we use it to pay physicians who
are working hard and ought not to have a cut in their reimbursement rates,''
Doggett said.

While the focus on the bill has largely been on changes for doctors and
private insurers, virtually every type of health care provider as well as
millions of patients have a stake in the legislation.

For Medicare recipients, lawmakers lowered the copayments for mental health
treatment and allowed more people to qualify for the government's help in
paying their monthly premiums.

For providers, such as pharmacists, the legislation ensured that they're
paid promptly by Medicare drug plans and delayed changes that would have cut
their reimbursements when dispensing generic drugs for Medicaid patients.

Military families also had a stake as its TRICARE program set reimbursement
levels based on Medicare, and lawmakers raised concerns leading up to the
vote that those families would have a hard time finding a doctor.

Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, said a
10.6 percent cut ''would have been devastating to seniors and the disabled
who rely on Medicare for the health care they need, as well as to military
families who rely on TRICARE for their health care.''

Prior to Bush's veto, the House had voted in favor of the bill 355-59, so
Tuesday's override vote showed more Republicans breaking with the
administration.

The vote in the Senate in passing the bill last week was much closer, 69-30,
leaving little margin for error for supporters trying to sustain a
two-thirds majority to override.

Don Gabacho · Guest

Doctors are already making too much money. Congress serviced the AMA,
a lobby, and no one else.

Al. E. Crocodile · Guest

"Sid9" <sid9@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:Sxdfk.1879$w93.1168@bignews4.bellsouth.net...

American Patriot · Guest

On Jul 16, 2:19 am, Don Gabacho <jpast...@nettaxi.com> wrote: