Today, steep Medicare physician payment cuts that will harm seniors’ access to care begin nationwide. Despite bipartisan support to stop the cuts, action was stymied at the last minute by 39 Senators who followed the direction of the Bush Administration and voted to protect health insurance companies’ profits at the expense of America’s seniors, disabled and military families. The bill that the group of senators opposed passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 355 to 59.

The physicians of America are outraged that Congress failed to act before the deadline. Today, the American Medical Association began airing new radio and television ads in Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. The ads urge opponents of H.R. 6331 to put patients’ access to care before insurance profits by voting for the bill as soon as they return to Washington from their holiday recess.

The AMA is not taking a recess from work to stop the cuts, and is activating a full-court press in the states this week.  More than 41,000 calls by patients and physicians were made to Congress already in June through the AMA grassroots hotline.  AARP and the Military Officers Association of America are also firing up their grassroots communities to stop the cuts in order to ensure that seniors and military families continue to have widespread access to physician care through Medicare and TRICARE.

It is critical that the Senate take immediate action to replace 18 months of Medicare physician payment cuts with updates that better reflect increases in medical practice costs. If they don’t – our senior, disabled and military patients will pay the price of Congress’ inaction with reduced access to care.

The AMA’s new ads and a video message from me to the patients and physicians of America can be viewed at www.ama-assn.org.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Politics .