washingtonscene
LEGISLATIVE NEWS
THAT AFFECTS YOU
For Shame
Politicians fumble on a Medicare fi x, risking a 10.6-
percent reduction in payments to doctors and the cutoff
of Medicare therapy coverage as of July 1.
T
hey blew it. All of them. pendence Day and promised to fi x things
Defense Bill
The president. Congress. The after recess. So what happened here?
Action Delayed
House and Senate. Republi- On June 24, the House overwhelm- ■ Protracted Senate ac-
cans and Democrats. They ingly passed a fi x (H.R. 6331) that would
tion on other legislation
had months to work out a have stopped the payment cuts, substi-
precluded any action on
the FY 2009 Defense
relatively simple deal to prevent a 10.6-per- tuted a small increase for doctors seeing
Authorization Bill until
cent cut in Medicare payments from tak- Medicare and TRICARE patients, and
after the July 4 recess,
ing effect July 1 and to prevent cutting off prevented the therapy cutoff. The vote which was well after press
Medicare coverage for hundreds of thou- was a seemingly veto-proof 355 to 59.
time. So it will be at least
sands of Medicare-eligible speech- and But Senate Republicans and the presi-
another month before we
physical therapy patients on that date. dent didn’t approve of the funding source
get decisions on pend-
ing Senate amendments
But they chose to play political chicken for that fi x (cutbacks in some Medicare
concerning TRICARE fees,
with seniors’ care, and their hardhead- advantage programs that pay those insur-
concurrent receipt, reserve
edness prevented anything from getting ance companies up to 17 percent more retirement age, and more.
done. Having failed in timely action, Con- than regular Medicare does) and pushed
gress took a week’s vacation over Inde- an alternative bill.
After the overwhelming House vote,
Senate leaders tried to bring the bill up
for a vote anyway. But when Republicans
objected, 60 votes were needed to over-
come the objection. They got 59 — not
enough to even get a vote, let alone over-
ride a threatened presidential veto.
Republicans then proposed extending
the current rates for 30 days to allow more
time for a fi x. But that was a nonstarter,
because the House already had left town
for recess — with House leaders of both
parties knowing full well that doing so
would preclude any alternative action
MOAA’s TRICARE champion, Sen. when the Senate vote failed or the presi-
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), recently host- dent exercised the expected veto. Because
ed MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan the Senate couldn’t approve any alter-
Jr., USN-Ret. Ryan thanked Lautenberg native fi x without similar action in the
for leading the legislative battle to defeat House, the House’s early recess assured no
excessive TRICARE fee hikes. action would be taken before July 1.
PHOTO: SEAN SHANAHAN AUGUST 2008 MILITARY OFFICER 33
AAug_scene.indd
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