About Those Medicare Cuts …
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
If you or a loved one depends on Medicare, here’s a story you need to hear.
Many years ago, in an effort to curb increases in Medicare spending, Congress passed a law that set yearly targets for the rate of Medicare reimbursements paid to care providers. This rate, called the “sustainable growth rate” (SGR), is based on a formula tied to increases in the Gross Domestic Product.
If the SGR formula had been followed, every year for the past several years the rate of Medicare reimbursements would have been cut just a little. But every year since 2003 Congress has voted to defer the cut, so the reimbursement rate has remained the same.
However, this year Congress did not pass the deferment. A “doc fix” bill introduced by House Democrats was blocked by Republicans, who called the bill too expensive.
Unless somebody does something, on December 1 all of the deferred cuts of the past several years will go into effect at once, adding up to a whopping 24 percent cut. There is real concern that many physicians will drop Medicare patients.
Health care reform is a critical issue to most Americans, including Americans stricken with mesothelioma. Because this deadly cancer takes a long time to develop, it is usually diagnosed when the patient is aged 50 or more. Without Medicare or other good insurance, mesothelioma treatment would be financially devastating.
What’s especially infuriating about the Medicare situation is that many of the same politicians who voted against the “doc fix” are blaming the reimbursement cut on the new health care reform law, and thereby on Democrats and the Obama Admnistration. But the provider reimbursement cut is not part of health care reform.
What’s going to happen next will depend a lot on who wins the midterm elections in November. The most useful thing you can do right now is to find out where your congressional candidates stand on Medicare issues. And if anyone hears a candidate blame health care reform for Medicare provider reimbursement cuts, think of that as a big, flashing neon sign saying “Vote for the other candidate.”
