Last summer, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have halted a 10.6 percent Medicare physicians pay cut. Democrats proposed to reduce payments to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to fund the physicians pay cut.
President Bush reportedly vetoed the bill because it would “harm beneficiaries by taking private health plan options away from them” and urged Congress to send him a bill “that reduces the growth in Medicare spending, increases competition and efficiency, implements principles of value-driven health care, and appropriately offsets increases in physician spending.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that President-Elect Barack Obama probably will try to resurrect the proposal to reduce payments to MAs as well as change Medicare Part D. From the article:
With the economy in a recession and Democrats with a bigger majority in Congress, it may be easier for them to achieve their goals. President-elect Barack Obama talked about cutting “excessive subsidies” to those plans during the presidential campaign. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) said he wanted to address “overpayments” to private insurers in his blueprint on health-care reform.
…
Democrats also are aiming to change elements of the drug benefit, such as the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole. Mr. Obama, Mr. Stark and others are also keen on getting the government the power to negotiate for drug prices, something it can’t do.
