Obama's health care reform bill; no doc fix?

by: CHARLES FIEGL Feb 22, 2010

President Barack Obama posted his own health care reform bill Monday morning. I gave the 11-page summary document a quick scan and couldn't find language that temporarily or permanently addresses Medicare payment rates. If and when a complete version is posted, I'm guessing a pay-fix to the annual sustainable growth rate (SGR) cuts won't be there because such provisions cost at least $250 billion (thus, very difficult to offset with new taxes and/or spending cuts elsewhere). You still need to look elsewhere for a Medicare payment fix.

The bill looks similar to the Senate's health care reform bill. The bill would supposedly cover 31 million Americans. It includes annotations referencing Republican ideas, such as efforts to decrease dishonest billing practices in Medicare (an idea from Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.)).

Clearly, Obama is trying to show this is a bipartisan bill. However, Republican leaders are already using familiar refrains to blast the bill. Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) tweets: "Obamacare 2.0 to Cost nearly $1 Trillion, Raise Taxes http://amplify.com/u/2193." Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) says "President's health care plan fails to address concerns of American people http://bit.ly/c5OBxn Let's start over and focus on lowering costs."

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