Medicare Cut Not Stopped
By Conor Harrison, Kerrville Daily Times, Texas
Jul. 3–Kerrville physicians hoping for Congress to step in and stop a 10.6 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements were disappointed Wednesday when House Resolution 6331 fell one vote short of passing in the Senate.
“Congress had six months to effectively address harsh Medicare cuts that will harm seniors’ access to care,” said American Medical Association president Dr. Nancy Nielson. “Despite broad partisan support in the House of Representatives (355 to 59) for legislation to stop the Medicare cuts, action was stymied by 39 senators. This is not a partisan issue — this is a patient-access issue.”
Among the 39 senators who didn’t vote for the measure were Texans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn.
Cornyn’s vote prompted the Texas Medical Association’s political arm, TEXPAC, to withdraw its endorsement of his re-election bid.
TMA president Dr. Josie Williams, said Texas physicians “are deeply offended” that the Senate “chose to protect insurance companies’ profits instead of protecting our patients’ health. Either one of (the senators) could have made a difference. Instead, they chose to play partisan politics with our patients’ health.”
The cuts “will force physicians into an impossible choice: Face financial crisis by continuing to see their Medicare patients, or protect their practices and cut off those patients,” wrote TEXPAC board of directors chairman Dr. Manuel Acosta in a letter to Cornyn. “There is talk and then there is action. We expect our elected officials to show leadership and do the right thing. Absent that, TEXPAC has rescinded our endorsement of your candidacy.”
Already seeing a shortage of doctors, the new cuts could have far-reaching effects on Kerrville’s ability to bring in new doctors because of a large senior citizen population.
“We’ll just keep working,” said Dr. Charles Ballay of Kerrville. “Hopefully, the Senate will figure it out. We are all kind of praying they will do the right thing.”
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