Congress votes to override veto on Medicare bill

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-16 09:54

Bush said the bill would reduce "access, benefits and choices for all beneficiaries."

"We don't have to punish the patients to help the doctors," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

However, Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans believe the government's payments to the plans are too generous and that those payments drive up costs for taxpayers as well as the 44 million participants in the program.

"We wasted no time in reversing the president's carelessness and protecting our nation's doctors and the patients they treat," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "This responsible and overdue Medicare fix is now law."

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said the federal government spends more on patients in Medicare Advantage than on comparable patients in traditional Medicare, leading to billions of dollars in additional costs annually.

"We take some of that unnecessary waste and we use it to pay physicians who are working hard and ought not to have a cut in their reimbursement rates," Doggett said.

While the focus on the bill has largely been on changes for doctors and private insurers, virtually every type of health care provider as well as millions of patients have a stake in the legislation.

For Medicare recipients, lawmakers lowered the copayments for mental health treatment and allowed more people to qualify for the government's help in paying their monthly premiums.

For providers, such as pharmacists, the legislation ensured that they're paid promptly by Medicare drug plans and delayed changes that would have cut their reimbursements when dispensing generic drugs for Medicaid patients.

Military families also had a stake as its TRICARE program set reimbursement levels based on Medicare, and lawmakers raised concerns leading up to the vote that those families would have a hard time finding a doctor.

Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, said a 10.6 percent cut "would have been devastating to seniors and the disabled who rely on Medicare for the health care they need, as well as to military families who rely on TRICARE for their health care."

Prior to Bush's veto, the House had voted in favor of the bill 355-59, so Tuesday's override vote showed more Republicans breaking with the administration.

The vote in the Senate in passing the bill last week was much closer, 69-30, leaving little margin for error for supporters trying to sustain a two-thirds majority to override.

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