Once again, our Congress, in this case the Senate, has shown their inability to to divorce themselves from the powerful insurance lobby by refusing to delay a 10%+ cut in Medicare payments for physicians which went into effect July 1st – the pay rates are actually lower than they were in the early 1990’s despite the increased costs of running a medical practice. The time for inaction, political posturing and gamesmanship in Washington is at an end. Congress either needs to act correctly or the public must look for new leaders when they go to the polls in the fall elections . . . jomaxx
Senate inaction on Medicare cuts generates anger from physicians and the AMA
Reflecting physicians’ frustration with a group of senators that blocked action last week on legislation that would stop harsh Medicare physician payment cuts, the AMA began airing new TV and radio ads on Tuesday urging opponents of the “Medicare Improvements to Patients and Providers Act” (H.R. 6331) to put patients’ access to care before insurance profits. The ads will run initially in Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming through this week’s congressional recess.
The ads open with a reference to Independence Day, then say: “There’s no celebrating for the millions of Medicare patients—seniors, the disabled and military families—who will lose their access to health care. A group of U.S. senators voted to protect the powerful insurance companies’ huge profits at the expense of Medicare patients’ access to doctors.”
“The AMA is activating a full-court press—both advertising and grassroots—in the states during the Independence Day recess,” said Dr. Nielsen. “Over the month of June more than 41,000 calls by patients and physicians have been made to Congress urging action through the AMA’s grassroots hotline alone. Physicians and patients will be holding their senators’ feet to the fire.”
AMA ad against Medicare reductions
View a news release about the new AMA ads and visit the Web site to watch the ads.
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/18739.html