In a rare moment of bipartisan cooperation, the US House overwhelmingly passed a Medicare payment overhaul bill on Thursday. The bill also included a two-year extension to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), authorizing 5.6 billion dollars in funding for the program.
The measure overhauls the way doctors are reimbursed
for their Medicare patients, eliminating the annual “doc fix” formula
used to reimburse physicians. The “doc fix’ formula involves Congress calculating the sustainable growth rate and reimbursing doctors accordingly.
The “doc fix” has been in use since 1997, but it has
been criticized by members of both parties as being a flawed way of
paying doctors. Without Congressional action, doctors could face a 21 percent pay cut, for treating Medicare patients after March 31st.
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 sailed through the House on a 392-37 vote,
with Republican Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi, working in rare cooperation to pass the bill through the
House. 212 Republicans and 180 Democrats supported the bill, with 33
Republicans and 4 Democrats voting against the bill for various reasons.
Most of the Republican opponents of the bill objected to the 214 billion price tag over ten years. Some of the costs of the measure will be offset by raising premiums and prescription drug costs, for high-income Medicare recipients.
Some liberal groups also found fault with provisions
of the bill. While the bill approves more funding for community health
centers, that funding cannot be used to provide abortion services. In
addition, the Republicans agreed to extend funding for CHIP for two
years, instead of the four years Democrats had hoped for.
Nevertheless, nearly every Democrat in the House,
including progressive leaders like Keith Ellison, Alan Grayson, John
Lewis, Mark Takano and Jackie Speier, voted for the bill. With
the Republican-controlled U.S. House usually being so dysfunctional
that nothing positive can be accomplished, liberals and moderates seized
upon the GOP’s willingness to compromise, by steering the significant
piece of legislation through the chamber, against only muted opposition.
President
Obama has already voiced his support for the bill, and he is likely to
sign it into law should it pass the U.S. Senate and reach his desk.
While the bill, like any compromise piece of legislation, is far from
perfect, it does address a long overdue reform that was needed in
calculating Medicare reimbursements, and it does provide needed funding
for community health centers and children’s health. More importantly for
the legislative process, it also demonstrated that at least for one
surreal day, Washington wasn’t broken. The U.S. House was actually able
to govern. For one day, anyway.
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