The House has passed a bill to reform Medicare payments to providers but doomed the legislation by attaching a 5-year delay in the Affordable Health Care’s individual mandate. A dozen Democrats joined the Republican majority in approving the bill Friday on a 238-181 vote.
Republicans and Democrats agree that Medicare’s payment system should be replaced with a system that would reward quality rather than quantity of care. Such a change could help curb rising medical costs.
But lawmakers remain at odds over how to cover the estimated 10-year cost of $140 billion.
Democrats vigorously reject a lengthy individual-mandate delay, which would undermine the individual insurance market. Democratic suggestions that unspent war funding could be used instead, however, are misguided because that money was never really going to be spent anyway.
Congress faces an April 1 deadline to avoid a 24 percent cut in payments to physicians under Medicare’s current formula. Lawmakers have a good opportunity for Medicare reform; they should not squander it with partisan bickering over how to pay for it.
External links:
SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014
Cost Estimate for the Legislation (CBO)
Seizing the Moment on Health Costs (Concord Coalition Blog Post)
