Last year, shortly before Christmas, Congress was gridlocked over what to do about the upcoming deadline that would require a cut to the Medicare payment for doctors and hospitals. Their solution was to pass a two-month extension of that deadline. Now, that extended deadline is approaching, and Congress is deadlocked, once again, over how to solve this problem.
Shortly before Christmas of 2011, the United States Senate passed a bill that would have prevented a 27% pay cut for Medicare reimbursement to doctors and hospitals. There was a December 31, 2011, deadline coming up. If nothing was done, the massive cut would go into effect.
If that cut occurred, it was believed that it would destabilize the Medicare health care program. The expectation was that the reimbursement cut would cause health care providers to refuse to treat the 47 million seniors and disabled people who use Medicare.
The Republicans in the House of Representatives rejected the bill that the Senate passed. This lead to a complete gridlock in Congress. Eventually, Congress did manage to work together, and they passed a two-month extension to that deadline. Doing so allowed the House of Representatives to go on their holiday vacations.
Now, we have the same problem again. That extended deadline is coming up, and Congress must, once again, find a way to prevent the cut to the reimbursement that doctors and hospitals receive for treating people who use Medicare. Unsurprisingly, the Senate and the House of Representatives are deadlocked, once again, about how to solve this problem.
Both the Senate and the House agree that they want to give doctors a small increase in what they receive as reimbursement payments from treating Medicare patients. However, they are unable to agree on how, exactly, to cover that cost. Part of the problem links to the upcoming deadline involving payroll taxes. There are a whole lot of other complex issues connected to this, too.
There is no way to know what Congress will eventually decide. This uncertainty is causing some doctors to tell patients that they will no longer be accepting Medicare, (or the patients who use this public form of health insurance).
This means that seniors, and disabled people, who use Medicare will have problems finding a doctor that will agree to treat them. If you cannot find a doctor, then you cannot get the health care that you require. There isn’t anything that Americans can do about this problem, other than to wait and see what Congress decides to do.
Image by Josep Ma. Rosell on Flickr