Congressman Dave Reichert

Washington, DC, Nov 19, 2009 - Congressman Dave Reichert (WA-08) today rejected a bill that would increase Medicare Part B premiums and add more than $260 billion to the federal deficit.  The House passed the legislation, H.R. 3961, by a vote of 243-183.

“Our current system of reimbursing doctors for treating Medicare patients is in need of reform to ensure that physicians are appropriately compensated and our seniors’ access to care is not jeopardized, and I’ve long supported efforts to bring a permanent fix to this problem,” said Reichert.  “While this bill purports to preserve seniors’ access to care, it does so through a hidden tax on their Medicare Part B premiums. Once again, our seniors get the short end of the stick – first with $500 billion in cuts to Medicare in the health care overhaul bill, and now a hidden tax.  With health care costs soaring and threatening seniors’ health benefits, it makes no sense to suggest that we can preserve seniors’ access by demanding that they pay more for it.”

Reichert continued, “I sincerely hope that people in my district, and across America, understand the political sleight-of-hand that took place today that further penalizes our seniors. The question we need to be asking here is: why did Speaker Pelosi pull this $260 billion “reform” from the larger health care overhaul bill? Ensuring physicians can treat seniors on Medicare should be included in any health care reform legislation, to fix the problem in a way that’s responsible, transparent, open with taxpayers, and doesn’t hurt seniors or mortgage our children’s futures.”

Reichert supported an alternative today that would provide physicians with a competitive increase in payments for doctors, with reform in the legislation to compensate for the increases by implementing comprehensive, meaningful medical liability reform, ending junk lawsuits and costly defensive medicine by protecting doctors from overzealous trial lawyers.

Congressman Reichert has long-supported efforts to bring a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment system. Today’s House-passed legislation, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, will cost $260 billion, with $210 billion in deficit spending and $50 billion paid for by Medicare beneficiaries in the form of higher Part B premiums. The legislation would also:

•     Allow physician payment rates to be slashed if government spending targets are exceeded;
•     Tie spending targets to the Gross Domestic Product; and
•     Tie Physician reimbursement rates to utilization, continuing to punish providers who focus on delivering high-quality care while rewarding those who focus on volume.