Several sources indicate Pres Bush is going to veto the Medicare bill (that rescinded physician reimbursement cuts and phased out Medicare Advantage subsidies). The veto may happen today.
Oops, he just did.
The Senate and House are likely to vote to override the veto pretty quickly – perhaps within a day or so. If the veto is overridden, it will be the first time a Bush veto went down to defeat.
A post on the Wall Street Journal’s blog is notable not for the content (which appears accurate and timely nonethless) but rather for the tone and anger of the commenters. Remember folks, this is the WSJ, perhaps one of the most conservative publications in the country – yet the WSJ’s readers are beyond angry with Bush and his pending veto. Think livid, furious, outraged, hyperventilating mad. This isn’t exactly good news for McCain, who now will have yet another opportunity to either avoid voting on this (as he has to date) or will have to actually take a position.
If the veto is not overridden, it is going to be a holy mess out there in IT/reimbursement/physician contracting/patient access/state regulatory land.
Here are a few potential problems.
1. States that base their WC fee schedules on Medicaid will have to decide whether they are going to follow suit; and for those that are directly tied to Medicare, expect big noise from the occ med, ortho, and neuro physician communities.
2. CMS is going to start processing bills today with the 10.6% cut – and docs are going to start dropping out of Medicare at a rather rapid rate.
3. Republican legislators are going to be mincemeat during the August recess, which will be even uglier than their ‘holiday’ on July 4.
Jul
15
I am not sure that the comments on the WSJ blog are necessarily representative of WSJ readers. It is representative of WSJ blog readers who choose to post, but what else does that tell us?
I believe the key to fixing Medicare requires restructuring the very nature of the Medicare system. Admittedly, attempting to confine expenses to a budget while increasing the expenses beyond the budget does not work. However, because of the free market nature of medicine as a business in our country, cutting payment per service will by its very nature cause a reduction in the number of providers, and no economy can bear an unchecked upward spiral in the costs of any service. The only possible solution is that Medicare – either as a modified system or as a new system – will have to offer its beneficiaries a modified benefit. No system is simple, no system is free, and beneficiaries of all systems naturally want none of the restrictions to apply to their access to care. This matter is a very complex one.
Joseph “Yossi” Faber
Faber Healthcare Solutions
http://www.faberhealthcare.com
Senior citizens are being frightened to death by those who seek to turn back the clock to pre-Medicare days. The health care system needs extensive reform, but reducing health care coverage for senior citizens is not reform, it’s a tragedy. Stop by any doctor’s office in the country and you’ll discover we can ill afford to have fewer physicians treating Medicare patients.
Onehealthpro