CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
July 9, 2008 – 9:25 p.m.
Medicare Bill Cleared in Senate
By Drew Armstrong, CQ Staff
In the end, it was a landslide.
An ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy returned Wednesday to break an impasse on a Medicare bill, and with his vote came enough Republicans to send the president one of the strongest rebukes of his administration.
The Senate cleared the bill (
The administration quickly reiterated its pledge to continue fighting the legislation. But Wednesday belonged to the Democratic senior senator from Massachusetts, whose presence electrified the chamber.
“I’m glad to be back in the Senate. It’s enormously important,” Kennedy said in a brief gathering with reporters after the vote. “I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be able to express my voice and my vote.”
The veteran lawmaker is recovering from brain tumor surgery June 2 and has not been to the Capitol for more than six weeks.
Kennedy, 76, entered the chamber midway through the roll call vote. With an arm around his shoulder was presumed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama of Illinois. As they walked through the door, stunned fellow senators, aides and gallery watchers broke into raucous applause.
With the cheers still cascading, Charles E. Schumer , D-N.Y., walked to the center of the aisle and blew a kiss at the Republican side, grinning.
The legislation would replace a 10.6 percent cut to Medicare’s physician pay rates with 18 months of stable payments. The measure would also cut bonus payments to private Medicare plans known as Medicare Advantage. Those cuts total $12.5 billion over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Turning Tide
On past Medicare bills, the administration has been able to count on Senate Republicans to block Medicare Advantage cuts. But this time around, trims in Medicare Advantage were used as offsets for the bill’s rescission of cuts to Medicare physician payment rates.
And this time around, Republicans fled the president once it became obvious that Kennedy’s vote would give supporters of the bill the 60 votes needed to advance it.
Nine Republicans who had voted against the bill on June 26 switched to vote in favor of the Medicare measure.
Medicare Bill Cleared in Senate
Kennedy did not stay long, departing the chamber amid hugs and handshakes as colleagues beamed at him, followed by Obama and his son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy , D-R.I.
The most recent statement of administration policy (SAP) on the bill, issued June 26, said the administration “strongly opposes” the measure because of “inappropriate reductions in Medicare Advantage payments.”
A senior GOP aide said Bush was expected to veto the Medicare bill, hoping that Republican senators who defected would not do so on an override vote. “The president will make that decision, but the SAP is our policy,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto when asked if the president would still veto the bill.
The Medicare Advantage cuts take several forms. Among the cuts are bonus payments, known as “indirect medical education” payments, which go to private plans that have teaching hospitals in their service areas. The bill would additionally limit a subset of the private plans — so-called private fee-for-service plans — in their ability to use a process through which health care providers not explicitly enrolled in the plans could be forced to accept the plan’s payment levels when they treat a covered patient.
Also included is an 18-month postponement of a program that would have had makers of medical supplies bid for government business. The program went into effect on July 1, but the bill would roll it back. The bidding program is expected to save taxpayers about $1 billion a year when it is fully implemented.
Vote Switches Explained
The Medicare bill now goes to the president. And in the wake of Kennedy’s appearance, Republican senators seemed philosophical.
“We’ve had a very dramatic moment in the room here,” said Kay Bailey Hutchison , R-Texas. “I voted for the bill. It’s not the way I would have written it,” she added.
Even as he criticized the bill, John Cornyn , R-Texas, explained his vote for it. “It reversed the cut. That’s the commitment I made to the physicians in my state,” he said.
Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona said he thought it was still likely that Bush would veto the legislation. Asked if he and other GOP leaders could get their caucus to regroup and sustain the veto in the Senate, Kyl said simply: “I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”
Before Kennedy appeared, the partisan rhetoric was heated. Cornyn offered legislation (
Cornyn insisted that it was necessary to find a long-term solution to the physician pay problem.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., expressed frustration that Democrats had blocked efforts to vote on a wider array of Medicare proposals. “We know how to prevent this cut from going into effect, but we can’t stop it . . . if the Democrats won’t let us,” McConnell said.
Medicare Bill Cleared in Senate
Over the July Fourth congressional recess, supporters of the Democrats’ bill, including AARP, which represents seniors, and various physician lobby groups launched a flurry of political ads aimed at politically vulnerable Republican lawmakers.
“The physicians of America, along with our patients, certainly made it well known over the last week of their concerns about the impact of not taking action,” said James Rohack, a cardiologist with the Scott & White Clinic in Temple, Texas, who is also the president-elect of the American Medical Association.
He was especially glad to see Cornyn and Hutchison vote for the bill. “I think it was a difficult vote for both of them. But on the other hand, when push came to shove, hearing from patients and physicians, they ultimately — even though they were concerned about the process — voted for patient care,” he said.
Alan K. Ota, Richard Rubin, Catharine Richert, Alex Wayne and Kathleen Hunter contributed to this story.
Comments
Thats a MOTHER of FLIP FLOPPING! Kudos to nine senators who swiched sides in a week. Now we need to make sure that we start cutting down on waste by eliminating MIDDLEMEN - Health Insurance industry is a GUANTLET on the lives of Americans. It is an unneccesary cost worse than all TAXES combined.
Just when the Insurance industry has a plan that works the Pinkos don't like it because there is no chance of cheating in the program. Now that's what the democrooks do not like.
If any of those senators had to pay for their own supplement and the rising cost of it each and every year the bill wouldn't have even been written. When I sit down with a couple in their 80's and they are paying $300 a month EACH for their supplements, there has to be a better way and PFFS is it!
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