WASHINGTON, D.C. (YBH.ME) – Two sections of the CBO’s budget analysis of the latest Reid bill are sure to be played on a continuous feedback loop in the press and on talk radio over the next several days.
Senate Democrats set to pass health care reform.
Yes, the Reid bill as written will lower the Federal deficit, according to the CBO analysis, however the following two items place that fact in doubt. Look for Republicans to seize on both as a last ditch effort to derail the President’s push for reform. From the CBO analysis released today:
These longer-term calculations assume that the provisions are enacted and remain unchanged throughout the next two decades, which is often not the case for major legislation. For example, the sustainable growth rate (SGR) mechanism governing (emphasis ours) Medicare’s payments to physicians has frequently been modified (either through legislation or administrative action) to avoid reductions in those payments, and legislation to do so again is currently under consideration in the Congress.
And this,
The legislation would maintain and put into effect a number of procedures that might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time. Under current law and under the proposal, payment rates for physicians’ services in Medicare would be reduced by about 21 percent in 2010 and then decline further in subsequent years.
The bill, as written, effectively will lower doctors salaries while asking them to take on millions of more patients. By and large the Democrats believe that getting any bill passed is the way forward, and any details like the above can be worked out once the health care system is fully in the Federal government’s hands. The GOP has tried to fight the bill, but has yet to win over any moderate Democrats.
At first look Ben Nelson’s “hold-out” against the bill, and later capitulation, seem more like a Senator playing for goodies for his state than a principled stand. The bill is set for a Christmas Eve vote in Washington. Mr. Nelson was the last Democrat to agree to the current bill.
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John Romano is the publisher Yes, But However!, the lead singer of the rock band The Sugarmen, a political correspondent for BBC Radio London and a and a serial web entrepreneur. Oh, and his nickname is Johnny Rome, has been for 15 years.
