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Medicare Cut Reversed

admin on 06 20, 2010

In a surprise turn of events the Senate voted to reverse their actions from the prior day.  On June 17th the Senate voted down a package that included Medicare aid to states, extension on jobless benefits, and the Medicare fix.  Republicans were the strong opposition to the increase in the budget deficit.

On June 18th, the Senate decided to push this tough cut for another 6 months.  It seems that the Senate and Congress can’t handle cutting any expense from the budget.  They have pushed this cut off since 2003.  In fact in has come up 9 times and they have always pushed it off into the future.  This is one of the reasons Doctors have not had a raise in 7 years.

This time though, they have given the Doctors a reimbursement raise of 2.2%.

Hopefully the Medicare program can release payments held back since June 1st.  As we have written about before the Medicare has held these payments back in expectation of the cuts but will now add in their raise.

They have delayed a very difficult vote for another six months.  This will be after the November elections where this could have become a very heated debate.  No politician wants anyone who is relying on Medicare to be denied access.

I guess it is a small victory for now and hopefully Congress and the Senate can be productive over the next six months.  It seems this is a very small issue, but like most small problems, if they are not tended to properly they can turn into large problems.

Cheers to another six months!