With the release of the CBO numbers, the Senate Finance Committee’s Marked Up version of Healthcare Reform got a boost, according to the Wall Street Journal.
One of the more interesting aspects of the CBO estimate is that it assumes Physicians will take a 25% reduction in their fee schedule for Medicare Allowable charges beginning in 2011. The bill does pay for the elimination of the scheduled 21% reduction in 2010.
Generally, Congress has had a hard time allowing the Deficit Reduction Act’s (DRA 1997) reductions to the Physician’s fee schedule to actually take effect. To be more accurate, it’s never happened! It’s interesting that this bill is deemed to “balance” based on a provision which, most likely, will never occur.
Basically, this “kicks the can” down the road another year based on an absurd assumption which becomes more absurd every year. It would be nice to “once and for all” fix the Physician fee schedule issue, so we can evaluate a bill in the real world instead of fantasy land.
