No Easy Fix For Medicare Doctors’ Pay

If you were hoping for a quick resolution of the Medicare physician payment issue, think again.

The 鈥渄oc fix鈥 issue is part of聽a broader and more complicated debate: how to finance an extension of the current payroll tax cut for the rest of the year and聽federal聽benefits for the long-term unemployed. 聽Both parties want to stop a scheduled but disagree over how to pay for it.聽 The current extension expires at the end of February.

鈥淭here are a lot of key issues, a lot of them not easily solved鈥. I think we鈥檝e got some work to do,鈥 said , R-Texas, a member of the House-Senate conference panel expected to begin talks on the issue next week.聽聽鈥淚 don鈥檛 see these as simple issues…. If [they] were, it would have been done before the holidays,鈥 he said Wednesday.

, D-Calif., said Democrats would continue their push for a surtax on millionaires as a way to finance the payroll tax extension and to use money from the drawdown in U.S. overseas war operations as a way to finance a partial or permanent solution to the Medicare physician payment formula.聽聽 House Republicans have previously rejected both ideas and are likely to do so again.

, R-Ohio, signaled that Republicans may聽return to the same bargaining stance they held in December extending the payroll tax cut and stopping the Medicare physician payment cut for two months. 聽鈥淲e were picking the right fight, but I would argue we probably picked it at the wrong time,鈥 he said.

Boehner didn鈥檛 elaborate on the Republicans’ specific plans on the issue. The Republican-led House sought late last year to extend doctors’ payments for two years at a cost of $38 billion and paying for it by cutting programs established by the 2010 health law and to hospitals.

Even if those areas are resolved, another dispute could complicate matters: President Barack Obama鈥檚 decision Wednesday , which Republicans favor.聽聽When asked if Obama鈥檚 move would play a role in the payroll tax extension negotiations, Boehner responded: 鈥淎ll options are on the table.鈥 He added later: 鈥淭his fight is not going to go away. You can count on it.鈥

More from 麻豆女优 Health News