Congress made tremendous progress over the past year as lawmakers worked together across chambers to craft bipartisan legislation to reform Medicare’s failing payment system. But recent partisan tactics could prevent repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula from crossing the finish line, even as the March 31 deadline approaches.
On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a version of the bill that was amended to offset the cost of repeal with a five-year delay of the individual mandate for health insurance coverage required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The president announced ahead of the vote that he would veto such a measure. Not surprisingly, the vote of 238-181 was almost entirely along party lines.
In an editorial published Friday evening, the Wall Street Journal compared the partisan maneuvers of both chambers in this matter to a Greek tragedy. The headline says it all: “How a sensible and bipartisan Medicare reform dies in Congress.”
It would be a true shame for lawmakers to have worked so hard together to create a legislative solution that everyone can agree upon, only to have it overcome in the final stretch by partisan politics about budgetary issues.
Just two weeks ago at the AMA National Advocacy Conference, Rep. Michael Burgess, MD, R-Texas, who introduced the original bill in the House, noted how unprecedented the collaboration was. He emphasized that the bipartisan bill was the first time that all three committees of jurisdiction—and their Republican and Democrat members—agreed on SGR repeal legislation.
But time is running out. When Congress returns from recess next week, they’ll have just a few days before a 24 percent payment cut is scheduled to take effect. If the SGR formula isn’t repealed before then, we’ll face either a steep cut or another costly temporary patch. Neither option is what our practices, patients or nation need.
As physicians, no one knows that better than we do. And we did an amazing job communicating that to our members of Congress over the past several months. In a remarkable display of unity, we achieved many important milestones for Medicare reform:
- A bipartisan majority in Congress—141 Republicans and 118 Democrats—signed a letter to their leadership urging full SGR repeal.
- Committees from both chambers of Congress worked together to create a legislative package that repeals the SGR formula and offers considerable improvements over current law.
- The three committees of jurisdiction completed successful bipartisan mark-up of the legislation, which then was sent to the full Congress.
- 118 members of the House co-sponsored the original repeal bill.
Only four legislative days remain until Congress has missed their opportunity with this legislation. Call your members of Congress at (800) 833-6354, or email them today. Let’s drive home our message: No more patches. Repeal SGR. And work together to get the job done.
