House blocks cutting pay to doctors for Medicare

WASHINGTON – In a matter of days, the federal government is scheduled to start paying doctors 10.6 percent less when they treat Medicare patients.

With that in mind, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation yesterday that would void the cut and pay for it by trimming payments to private health insurers.

The legislation passed 355-59 despite a veto threat by President Bush and protests from the insurance industry. It had broad support from doctors, hospitals and pharmacists. A vote against the measure would have risked alienating those important constituencies just as lawmakers get ready to break for the July Fourth recess.

Now, the job of avoiding a pay cut for doctors falls to the Senate, where lawmakers were working yesterday to craft a compromise that would gain Bush's support or get enough votes to overcome a veto.

About 600,000 doctors care for Medicare patients. Payment rates are set to drop by 10.6 percent Tuesday as a result of a formula that calls for cuts when spending exceeds established goals. Avoiding the cuts has become an annual event for Congress, but finding the money requires trimming payments to other health care providers.

Democrats want to take money from the Medicare Advantage program, which lets the elderly and disabled get health benefits through a private insurer rather than through traditional Medicare.

Democrats said payments to the insurers are overly generous, but the administration and supporters in Congress said the payments mean lower monthly premiums for Medicare Advantage participants or services such as vision and dental care. Under the bill passed yesterday, insurers would lose nearly $14 billion over five years.