Kohl, Feingold buck party on Medicare payments
MCT REGIONAL NEWS
By Diana Marrero
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(MCT)
Oct. 25--Wisconsin’s senators broke party ranks to vote against a measure that would have increased Medicare payments to doctors by about $250 billion over the next 10 years.
Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold both said they voted against the proposal Wednesday because Senate leaders had not found a way to pay for it so that it wouldn’t increase the national debt.
The bill would have prevented scheduled cuts in payments to doctors, who complain that they are reluctant to take on Medicare patients because they deem the government’s reimbursement rates too low. Congress usually prevents the cuts each year, but Democratic leaders had hoped to deal with the issue in one swoop for the next decade.
“I believe that the Medicare sustainable growth rate is a broken policy and must be fixed,” Feingold said. “I also believe that requiring Congress to pay for enacting new policies is critical to our long term financial stability and strength as a nation.”
The proposal went down when only 47 senators voted to bring it up for debate -- 13 votes short of the 60 needed to advance the legislation in the Senate. The defections were seen as a blow to Democratic leaders and an early indication of how difficult it will be for the Senate to pass a broader health reform bill.
Deal making: Despite the setback in the Senate, House leaders announced they had reached a deal of their own regarding Medicare. Democrats say they want to change the way payments are made to doctors and hospitals to reward quality of care over quantity of care.
Rep. Ron Kind, a La Crosse Democrat, hailed the agreement as a major victory for rural states such as Wisconsin, where doctors and hospitals often are paid less by Medicare. The plan calls for the Institute of Medicine to examine Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals and provide alternatives that would reward better health outcomes over the sheer number of procedures.
“We have this mind-set that more is better, but the studies show that that’s not necessarily the case when it comes to health care,” said Kind, who has lobbied Democratic leaders on the issue. “This ultimately is what gives us the best potential of finding cost savings.”
The deal is expected to bring in more support from moderate Democrats in Congress for a so-called public option that would create a government insurance plan tied to Medicare.
Deficit: Feingold is proposing a series of spending cuts and other provisions that he says would reduce the deficit by $500 billion in 10 years. The Wisconsin Democrat introduced legislation Tuesday that would, among other things, return any unspent federal bank bailout money to the Treasury Department. Feingold also wants to give the president line-item veto powers to strike individual spending items from spending bills, curtail the ability of lawmakers to seek congressional earmarks and cut spending for programs he argues are wasteful.
Feingold’s proposal comes as lawmakers grapple with a new report by the Treasury Department that found the country’s deficit reached a record $1.4 trillion this year. Republicans seized on Feingold’s proposal, saying the senator was masquerading as a “deficit hawk” despite his support for the $787 billion stimulus measure this year. A Feingold spokesman took issue with the assessment, saying that fiscal watchdog groups have lauded Feingold for some of his fiscal stances in the past.
White House visit: Kohl attended a bill-signing ceremony at the Oval Office on Wednesday for an agriculture spending measure that contained a number of provisions he has championed. The $121 billion bill includes $350 million in emergency funding for dairy farmers now dealing with low milk prices. The bill also includes $58.2 billion for the food stamp program.
On TV: Feingold is set to appear on “Face the Nation” on CBS on Sunday morning. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has worked closely with Feingold on a number of issues, is the other guest.
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To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.
(c) 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Oct 26, 2009 at 8 p.m.
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Sarah do you read the news?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/U...
Oct 26, 2009 at 12:39 p.m.
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We cannot afford Medicaire today. Now our congress threatens the stability of our entire national healthcare system, led by our President and his democrat party, as the retsructure our healthcare
I simply do not trust our professional politicians today. One example of why is because of the so-called facts they have been presented to the American people about how bad our healthcare insurance companies are ripping off the American people, portraying them as immoral, or obscene. Recent data now proves to be factually untrue, intentionally mis-leading.
Healthcare insurance companies profit margins run at most, between 5% to 8%. Fact is the healthcare insurance industry from 2005 forward, never cracked 8 percent profit. That’s a paltry profit picture when compared to most other American businesses. The railroads brought in a 12.6 percent profit margin, network and other communications equipment, were at 20.4 percent.
In the past year, healthcare insurance companies profits were just 2.2%, placing them 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries. That ranking resulted in the healthcare insurance companies credit ratings being downgraded and their investors being warned about the industries shrinking profits. As is typical, other healthcare sectors did much better -- drugs and medical products and services were all in the top 10.
The most recent annual profit margins of a selection of products, services and industries all exceeded the healthcare insurance companies. For example: Tupperware Brands, 7.5 percent; Yahoo, 5.9 percent; Hershey, 6.1 percent; Clorox, 8.7 percent; Molson Coors Brewing, 8.1 percent; construction and farm machinery, 5 percent; Yum Brands (think KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), 8.5 percent.
The healthcare insurance companies have become the convenient target for any of the political proponents of a new 'public' national healthcare plan. The public option is being promoted as the stick that will be used to beat these greedy, immoral healthcare insurance companies into playing fairer. And the implications are that our healthcare costs will decrease, and everyone will be covered, and we will all be better off for this. Not true -- none of it!
Oct 26, 2009 at 6:35 a.m.
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Oh goody, our country's finances are in such good shape Kohl can get a bill passed to give a few billion to the farmers and food stamp programs!! Like no one else is suffering during this recession! What's a few billion here and there. After all it's not his money. Where are the bills he's passed that lower our taxes?? Or make government more efficient? Why can't these two boobs we have for senators add a section to the health care bill for tort reform which would save a lot of $. Oh that's right, dems get a lot of money from lawyers for their campaigns. Can't wait for the next election!
Oct 26, 2009 at 5:54 a.m.
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Winterstinks, the payments to these doctors are not going to change. This bill was created by the dem leadership in the senate to make it appear (smoke and mirrors) the healthcare reform bill would stay under a target of less than one trillion. By tossing this small bit of the reform into a separate bill, with no funding, it gave the illusion their target was met.
Oct 26, 2009 at 2:52 a.m.
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National Journal's vote ratings of senators rank Feingold 85.5% liberal.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/voteratin...
.
He is, however, a deficit hawk.
Oct 26, 2009 at 12:33 a.m.
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the one - I saw the post that Pete made - it must have been deleted. Pete was saying the senators will vote for the bill WITHOUT knowing what's in it. Yet Pete somehow knows that there are bad things in it.
Oct 26, 2009 at 12:21 a.m.
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now now - calm down winterstinks. I don't know of any 'elderly' that are not getting proper physicians services - do you? Also, we're not going to 'oust this guy'. He's a nobel prize president. He has done SOME good things for all Americans. It would be interesting to compare a list of the GOOD things that Obama has done for us to a list of the GOOD things YOU have done for us. Lets start with YOUR list. We’re waiting ..….
Oct 25, 2009 at 11:11 p.m.
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Everyone except him and the other members of congress that is.
Oct 25, 2009 at 10:57 p.m.
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I also seen Russ on meet the press he said he is for the single payer plan where everyone is on the Government Insurance.
Oct 25, 2009 at 8:30 p.m.
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This is pathetic. We can pay for Acorn CORRUPTION and "beauty school", but can't provide the elderly with proper physicians services. Oh that's right, we have to pay for Obama's Chicago style give-aways. When are we going to oust this guy?!?!?!
Oct 25, 2009 at 7:07 p.m.
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bobb1951: Unless I am misinterupting your question, Feingold has been a Democrat and I believe still is and will continue to be unless he pulls a Spector.
Oct 25, 2009 at 6:57 p.m.
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Seriously bobb? Never has been...never will be..
If you don't know that ...I guess you cannot be taken seriously....seriously...
Oct 25, 2009 at 6:55 p.m.
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OK...I give up. It shows 3 posts here, but I only see one ....and JustAskMe addresses a post by Pete (which isn't shown)
So...what is going on? I can only presume that that the Gazette staff is in censor mode...again?
Oct 25, 2009 at 2:09 p.m.
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It's strange Pete that they don't know the specifics of the bill, yet you do! Give us a break - stop posting senseless stuff like this.
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