Republicans, Not ObamaCare, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare

The Houston Chronicle has an article about an increasing number of Texas primary care doctors not accepting Medicare, largely because of  uncertainty caused by the flawed physician payment formula which I’ve discussed here many times in the past.  I’ve seen several conservative blogs which are twisting this to claim that the doctors are leaving because of cuts in Medicare brought about because of Obama’s health care plan. This is totally false. Here are the facts:

  • The health care reform bill increases payment for primary care doctors, and does not cut Medicare payments as some conservatives are claiming
  • The problem with the flawed payment formula goes back to 1997, well before the current health care reform
  • The Democrats have been trying for several months, both as part of the health care reform legislation and in separate legislation, to fix this problem. They have proposed legislation that would both protect doctors from pay cuts and provide an increase in reimbursement.
  • The Republicans have repeatedly blocked these attempts, including filibusters in recent months which have greatly increased the uncertainty discussed in the article.

Despite the right wing spin, if doctors do not accept Medicare it has nothing to do with “ObamaCare” and everything to do with Republicans screwing doctors and our patients.

Related Stories:

Republicans filibuster fix in April

Republicans filibuster fix in March over Democratic objections

House passed temporary fix after Republicans blocked permanent fix

Harry Reid attacked by Republicans when he tried to fix the problem last fall

Obama criticized for trying to fix problem as part of health care reform

Republicans play politics, screwing doctors

Benefits of health care reform for primary care doctors. (Does anyone really believe that the AMA would have endorsed the plan if it cut physician pay rather than providing benefits for their members?)

12 Comments

  1. 1
    Barb Ann Snow says:

    RT @ronchusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr

  2. 2
    slackadjuster says:

    RT @blackjedi47: RT @ronchusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr #tcot

  3. 3
    Jenna says:

    RT @blackjedi47: RT @RonChusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr

  4. 4
    kim g. says:

    RT @RonChusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr

  5. 5
    Keith says:

    RT @ronchusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr

  6. 6
    B. Allan Ross says:

    RT @blackjedi47: RT @ronchusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr

  7. 7
    B. Allan Ross says:

    RT @barbiesnow: RT @ronchusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr

  8. 8
    Kate says:

    Sharing this one – great pushback against a problematic article.  Any change of you providing specific links to the facts that informed your conclusions?  I’d like to be able to share them, as these are points worth fully supporting.

  9. 9
    Ron Chusid says:

    Try searching for previous posts here on the Medicare payment formula or skim through the health care category. There have been a number of posts on this here. If I have time later I’ll update the post with some links to past articles.

    There’s really nothing controversial in this. The original article refers to the problems from the Medicare payment formula and the media has covered several attempts by Democrats to fix this as well as the Republican filibusters in recent months. The latest problems came when short term fixes were included in the bills which included extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits which the Republicans tried to filibuster. They also blocked separate legislation to fix this and blocked attempts to include the fix in the healthcare reform legislation.

  10. 10
    Ron Chusid says:

    Post now updated with several links.

  11. 11
    Mr D. says:

    RT @ronchusid: Republicans, Not #Obama, Are Chasing Doctors Out Of Medicare http://is.gd/cff0n #p2 #hcr

  12. 12
    John F. says:

    Ron:
    Good, concise article refuting Republican BS.

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