July 8th, 2008
AMA does partisan battle over Medicare cuts
The AMA strives to be non-partisan.
Many doctor-politicians have been Republicans over the years, including former Majority Leader Bill Frist.
But the gloves are off this week, as doctors (and psychiatrists too) seek to pressure Republicans to support the reversal of a cut in Medicare reimbursements which went into effect July 1.
UPDATE: The AMA won in the U.S. Senate July 9 as Sen. Edward Kennedy returned dramatically to deliver a 60th vote to end debate, and 9 Republicans promptly switched to supporting the bill.
The ads use insurance companies as its bogeymen, and are aimed at getting a cloture vote in the Senate, cutting off debate, passed as early as this week.
But this fight is an uphill climb. President Bush has threatened a veto of the bill, so the docs may need as many as 8 Senators to switch sides in order to pass it. Some 22 Republican Senate seats are up for election this year.
The current bill is only a short-term fix to the problem of Medicare funding formulas, offering a slight hike but leaving intact language calling for cuts later on.
Some doctors are doing more to pile on the pressure, cutting back their patient services and closing their doors to new Medicare patients.
There is also an underlying ideological struggle going on.
Republicans support the privatization of Medicare services through Medicare Advantage plans offered by the insurance industry, and present formulae are geared to supporting them.
Thus HMOs like Coventry Health Care are urging their customers to defy the AMA and their own AARP lobby in order to oppose the bill.
It will be interesting to see the electoral impact if the doctors fail to get Republicans in Congress to do their bidding. Will patients follow their lead and throw the GOP out?
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 07/08/08
