Federal lawmakers return to Washington next week to take care of the Medicare payment fix and other provisions found in the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 (HR 4213). As you recall, the Senate left town for the Memorial Day holiday hours before the House voted for the bill.
There will likely be a fight or filibuster in the Senate over passing HR 4213. If you read Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein, the opposition should come from Senate Democrats. Pearlstein criticized conservative Democrats ("Blue Dogs") in the House this week for cutting $30 billion in health coverage and unemployment insurance from the tax bill, and choosing to keep $22 billion in funding to prevent Medicare reimbursements from falling off a cliff. Blue Dogs chose to pay physicians treating the elderly instead of providing money to those who can't afford insurance, he said. He writes:
The irony is, of course, that much of that money for Medicaid and COBRA would eventually have made its way into the hands of doctors and other health professionals. Instead, those clever Blue Dogs have found a way to get the docs the money to maintain their lifestyles, but without having to provide the extra care. That's a lousy set of policy trade-offs, one that a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic president, should have the wisdom to reject.
Forget that physicians are already limiting the number of Medicare patients they treat because reimbursements in Medicare aren't what they should be. Increasing pay will also help treat the ever growing Medicare patient population. And, forget that the House did cut billions from previous versions of the doc fix section - reducing it from a 4-year fix to a 19-month fix - to lower the overall cost of the bill.
Regardless, I don't think Democrats will oppose the fix. I think the opposition will come from Senate Republicans on this one.