It all started with “the Democratic attempt to buy off the American Medical Association by promising a permanent fix to the Medicare payment formula for doctors,” the Journal noted. But Democrats left a permanent fix out of the final healthcare reform bill to keep the official price tag below $1 trillion. “Democrats planned to pass the $250 billion fee-fix later in a separate bill, but somehow they never got around to it.”
The one-month fee-fix, just passed by the Senate and now in the House’s hands, will be the fourth temporary fix this year. Three of the four previous stopgaps, including a six-month fix in June, passed the deadline for a new fee-fix, causing great anguish among physicians. “Medicare simply stopped paying doctors, causing back-office disruptions nationwide,” the Journal said. “Imagine if a private insurer pulled these stunts.”
The lame-duck Democrats are dumping the $250 billion permanent fee-fix on Republicans who will take over the House in January. Consider it “Nancy Pelosi’s housewarming gift for Speaker-presumptive John Boehner,” the Journal said. “ObamaCare sopped up all the easy budget money.”
“Maybe now that the AMA has been exposed as fools one more time, its new leaders will support genuine reform,” the Journal said, adding that a new Medicare reform bill by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is “a good place to start.”
Read more coverage of the physician fee-fix:
– Senate Passes One-Month Fee Fix; House to Vote Just Before Deadline
– AMA Responds to Senate Passing One-Month Fee Fix
– AMA Wants New Federal Panel to Propose Permanent Fee Fix to Congress
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