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Published Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 | 4:53 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 | 5 p.m.
The U.S. Senate made strides today to ensure that Medicare patients won't be turned away by their doctors -- at least not in 2011.
Senators approved legislation to hold steady through the end of next year reimbursement rates for doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Without a patch, physicians face an almost 30 percent cut in reimbursements starting Jan. 1.
"This bipartisan agreement gives peace of mind to seniors and military families in Nevada and across the nation," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
The Sun recently reported that 12 percent of Nevada physicians have dropped out of the Medicare program rather than face uncertainty over payments.
About 300,000 people in Nevada receive Medicare benefits. Two-thirds are low-income.
The higher reimbursements would be paid for by money collected through the health care reform act. People who receive more insurance premium tax credits than they are entitled to (because they earned more money than expected in a given year) would pay the government back on a sliding scale determined by income rather than a flat fee.
Senators say the new payback system is more fair to recipients and to taxpayers. The extra money also is needed to pay doctors the higher rates.
The legislation now must be passed by the House and signed by the president to become law. Both are expected to support it.
Be Rich, be Poor but damn you, if you are middle class. Cause buddy you are going to PAY!!!!!
Isn't ObamaCare great???
"WE HAVE TO PASS IT (Obamacare) TO SEE WHAT'S IN IT" (Nancy Pelosi). So, now we have the monstrous boondoggle of Obamacare and already Congress is having to pass laws to deal with the inadequacies and blunders inside the 2,400 pages of this monstrous mess. Typical liberal/socialist disaster!The whole 111th Congress has been a disaster, along with the dude in the White House.
This is due to "Obamacare?"
LIE.
The "Doc Fix" is due to the REPUBLICANS creating the Sustainable Growth Rate in 1997 (13 years before health care reform).
"The formula was supposed to be a little tweak that saved a couple billion dollars. But the formula was wrong, and it quickly proved a wrenching readjustment that would've driven physicians out of the program by sharply slashing their payments."
Rather than fix the problem, the republican congress passed temporary fixes year after year.
This is just a continuation of that fix.
It has NOTHING to do with health care reform, and the nasty right-wing liars who blame Democrats or Obama for this are misleading you.
It has EVERYTHING to do with "Obamacare!"
"...nasty right-wing liars..."
Nasty???
Only a little boy would call an adult a "Liar."
This, more than anything else, proves that the cost of insurance is not the problem, it is the cost of medical care itself.
Think about what costs a doctor has. Basically rent, employees, and supplies. If a doctor loses money on what the government pays, then clearly the cost of being a doctor is the problem, NOT insurance premiums.
Obamacare did nothing to address the real issue. It was a gift to the insurance companies.