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Posted on 04/14/2015 2:45:32 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
The Senate is set to take up a bipartisan bill Tuesday that will permanently end the Medicare "doc fix," a yearly legislative headache on Capitol Hill, but some of the Senate's most conservative members are threatening to oppose the legislation crafted last month in the House, citing its price tag.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he expected to bring the bill to the Senate floor later in the day, hours before Medicaid officials say they will implement a 21 percent cut to the rates it pays doctors treating Medicare patients. McConnell said there is "a bipartisan desire" to pass the bill before the midnight deadline.
Complicating passage is the opposition of several staunch Senate conservatives, including presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who said in a statement Tuesday that any deal ending the "doc fix" should be "fully paid for and include significant and structural reforms to Medicare that provide seniors more power and control over their health care."
[Congress congratulates itself for the ‘doc fix’ deal, but can it happen again?]
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House-passed bill would add $141 billion to federal budget deficits through 2025. But in the subsequent 10 years, the nonpartisan budget analysts said, "federal savings would increase rapidly."
The House legislation, forged through high-level bargaining between Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), passed 392 to 37.
But Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Monday he would insist on fully offsetting the $141 billion in net spending with other federal budget cuts. "I'm disappointed, frankly, that the House sent over a bill that was not paid for," he said. "It's not easy, but it's very doable."
Beyond the cost, Cruz said the legislation also does nothing to address his signature issue, dismantling the Affordable Care Act, and instead "institutionalizes and expands
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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CRUZ or LOSE!I think he just lost the “senior vote” ... :-) ...
Seniors should be covered by Medicare, not Medicaid. I’m glad Cruz and Sessions are standing up for fiscal responsibility.
Read it again..
Ted Cruz said that any reform changes should be structured so that it would give seniors more control of their medicare coverage.
Sorry, rereading the entire article, it does say “Medicaid officials” but then refers to rates paid to Medicare patients. Confusing. I think both Sessions and Cruz are saying, get it paid for, not that they oppose the fix. Sessions says it is doable. Boehner screws up another one.
hours before Medicaid officials say they will implement a 21 percent cut to the rates it pays doctors treating Medicare patients.
This cut affects all doctors who treat Medicare recipients, it is part of the plan to drive us to a single payer system. They are driving small practice Doctors and older providers out of business. If you liked your doctor get ready to tell him goodbye and say hello to Gungadin Pakimarish.
Seniors are covered by Medicare ... that’s correct. If someone (anyone) causes the Medicare payments to doctors to drop tonight after midnight (something Congress has avoided repeatedly, year after year) ... that alone will kill a candidate’s presidential aspirations, as Medicare Seniors are a significant component of that election.
He better be doing it before midnight then ... LOL ...
You’ll get a Skype doctor appointment from India ... LOL ...
EXISTING seniors should be covered by Medicare - by block grants given to states, who will have the power to contract with private providers.
Then all of LBJ and FDR’s babies should be phased out.
I don't understand the subtleties of this proposed amendment, but I know that medicare doesn't give money directly to patients.
The money goes to the physicians and other care providers. That's why most doctors support medicare. They get more business that way.
Is that when the voting on that bills ends ?
That’s when the cuts to the doctor payments go into effect.
You should see the “billings” now with payments to doctors ... they bill (for example, a cardiologist) a little over $200. I saw that come through the other day. Then Medicare tells the cardiologist that he’s only approved for somewhere around $80 or $90 of that original bill of over $200.
He has to accept that as “full payment” for Medicare payment and he cannot bill the patient anything more than what Medicare says it will pay - and “write off” the remainder of his bill. His only “other” option is to simply no longer take Medicare patients.
NOW, imagine all those doctors out there ... being told that on top of the over $200 bill, being knocked down to $80 or $90 ... tonight at midnight, that bill is knocked down another 21%.
About that time doctors are going to be tellng Medicare patients to “Get lost!” ... :-) ...
Just tell SIRI where it hurts...........Did you say angina......did you say vagina..............
I’m gonna have to learn a bit more doctor terminology and get my self-help doctor degree to treat myself ... on the Internet ... :-) ...
Bipartisan. Isn’t that an obscure swahili term that means “bend over” ?
What ever happen to repealing Obamacare and restoring the funding that way?
Throwing out Obamacare is fine ... just don’t throw out Medicare with it ... :-) ...
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