Posted on 03/19/2015 8:53:27 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
WASHINGTON — The House's top two leaders are on the verge of securing a sweeping deal to permanently fix a gaping hole in Medicare that has haunted Congress for more than a decade while also securing significant long-term savings in the program.
And shockingly, it has broad support among Democrats and Republicans, including even some hardline conservatives who have spent years thwarting bipartisan agreements.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are aiming to finalize the deal this week and put it to a vote next week, leadership sources said. There's always a possibility of it imploding, but if the plan passes and is signed into law, it would be the most important piece of health care legislation since Obamacare, and a huge achievement for a Congress that has so far been marked by unusual dysfunction.
The deal would end the perennial Medicare "doc fix" problem by replacing the widely-maligned formula for reimbursing physicians, which currently imposes steep annual cuts that Congress has regularly overridden since 2002. It's a huge headache for lawmakers as powerful health industry groups have been clamoring for a permanent fix for years. The cost of repealing the existing "Sustainable Growth Rate" payment formula is $170 billion over a decade.
I get worried when Congress says the have a “fix” for anything.
Especially if both sides are in agreement!
“fix” ???
Pelousy already “fixed” Boner.
No... you didn’t post a title that said “Huge Boehner”...
Ayn Rand:
“In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.”
Fool! Doesn’t he know Pelosi is where Boehners go to die?
Fix the centerpiece of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs.
Well, congratulations.
I expect that we will all soon be standing in line for our health care at a seedy government clinic waiting for a 10 minute visit with a physician’s assistant and routinely be denied seeing a doctor or specialist. Of course members of Congress and government elites will get free red carpet treatment at the best healthcare centers in the country. How long are we going to be putting up with this crap?
With Pelosi, the Boehners die on the doorstep, long before going in.
Especially if both sides are in agreement!
*************
That usually means double trouble.
Key details of this “deal” are missing in the post and the article. I do not see how this actually helps to manage Medicare costs? I do see it essentially making gap insurance more attractive.
After the GOP successfully tucked that anti-abortion language in the human trafficking bill with the Dems unaware, I suspect they’ll be reading this one a little more closely.
Other than that, it appears Boehner found an issue that’s been a thorn in the sides of members of both parties and managed to take advantage of it to craft some measure of Medicare reform, while giving up little in return.
Like I’ve claimed before, he and McConnell are going to school the Dems and Obama the next two years, and it’s going to be fun to watch.
Boner’s neutered, allright. The GOPe is just the flip side of the same, dirty, tarnished libtard coin.
Boehner and Pelosi what could go wrong?
Anything and everything...
Yes, it generally means they get high and we get low (the shaft).
If you don’t want long lines we’ll need to increase the supply of doctors in line with the growth in the population. I attend the ‘graduation’ ceremony of doctors who finished their residencies and are moving on from southeast Florida and am shocked at how few are American-born Caucasians . . . about 15% of the last ‘class’ fit that category. A number of the foreign born graduates were planning to go back to their native lands. While normally you would worry about this kind of fix the growing scarcity of practitioners (particularly general medical internal providers) is really starting to become an issue.
Boehner’s copy of Websters
deal: surrender
negotiate: surrender
surrender: deal
Why doesn’t Bonehead just switch to the Marxist Party and be done with it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.