Medicare cuts to the tune of 27.4 percent threaten to undermine healthcare for millions of American seniors and disabled persons if Congress fails to come up with a permanent solution before Jan.1, The Associated Press reports.
Last week’s supercommittee failure leaves the so-called “doc fix” unresolved -- and time is running out, according to AP.
The cuts are the result of a 1990s budget law that failed to control spending but was never repealed. Congress passes a temporary fix each time, with the size of the reductions required the next time around growing larger each time.
“I don’t see how primary care doctors could take anywhere near like a 27-percent pay cut and continue to function,” Dr. Don Klitgaard, a family physician at a local medical center in Harlan, Iowa, told AP. “I assume there’s going to be a temporary fix, because the health care system is going to implode without it.”
“It’s almost comical” that Congress would let the situation get this far out of hand, he added.
A senior Washington lobbyist closely involved with supercommittee deliberations told AP that lawmakers of both parties wanted to deal with Medicare cuts to doctors, but a disagreement over tax increases blocked progress.
The options facing Congress now include a one-year or two-year fix, but that could be costly. Congress used to add it to the federal deficit, but that is pretty much impossible in the current economy. Instead, Congress must find about $22 billion in offsets for the one-year option and $35 billion for the two-year option. A permanent fix would cost about $300 billion over 10 years, making that option even far less likely.
“It’s going to be a real challenge, and there’s not a lot of time to play ping-pong,” the lobbyist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to make public statements, told AP. “It’s entirely possible given past performance that Congress misses the deadline.”
But both Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders say that won’t happen, AP reports. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) told AP that the Medicare fix is too important not to get done.
“They have to come up with a solution, and they will have to appear to pay for that solution, and that will be contentious,” economist Robert Reischauer, one of the public trustees who oversees Medicare and Social Security financing, told AP.
One option, according to AP, is to cut other parts of Medicare. A second option is to trim back spending under the new healthcare law. But either of those options would rally opposition.
Ultimately, the solution is an overhaul of Medicare’s payment system so that doctors are rewarded for providing quality, cost-effective care, Mark McClellan, an economist and medical doctor who served as Medicare administrator for President George W. Bush, told AP.
The threat of Medicare cuts has become sort of a holiday tradition, McClellan added. “It’s just not a very enjoyable one.”
