27 January 2012 - Congress’ pattern of procrastination has led to numerous fiscally irresponsible compromises that threaten Medicare’s physician foundation and endanger access to care for more than 40 million seniors, veterans and military families.
Unless Congress acts, Medicare payments are scheduled to be slashed by 27 percent on March 1, and physicians will be forced to make unwelcome choices, including limiting the number of Medicare patients they take on. TRICARE is also endangered since the government’s health program for military families ties its payment rates to Medicare.
Congress has intervened 13 times in the last decade with temporary patches that have postponed drastic Medicare payment cuts mandated by the government’s broken formula. Repeated short-term patches to the broken formula have made the problem worse by compounding the cost of a solution for taxpayers and mandated steeper cuts in physician payments year after year.
As recently as 2005, the cost of eliminating the broken payment formula would have been $48 billion. Today, the cost is $300 billion. If Congress continues its temporary interventions, the cost will escalate to $600 billion in only five years. read more>>>
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