New Congressional Health Reform Proposals Expected in June
[Posted 06/01/09]

Four key congressional committees are expected to introduce health reform proposals this month. These proposals will serve as the primary vehicles for health system reform legislation this year. Legislative leaders have indicated they hope to get bills to the floor in their initial houses for a vote before the August recess, an ambitious timeline given the complexity of the issues at hand.

CMA physician leaders have been meeting and talking all year with members of these key committees as they have been drafting the forthcoming proposals. CMA has also been coordinating with the county medical societies to ensure that Congress is hearing from physicians at the grassroots level. During the congressional recess last week, physicians met with elected officials in their home districts, focusing on ways to ensure real access to doctors and fix the Medicare payment formula and increase Medi-Cal rates to Medicare levels.

Increasing the difficulty of financing health reform, congressional budget committees recently voted to uphold the pay-as-you-go rules for all programs, meaning any sustainable growth rate (SGR) fix must be paid for in full. That means that despite President Obama's proposal to eliminate the SGR this year, Congress will have a difficult time finding the $285 billion it will cost to do so.

Further complicating matters, the Congressional Budget Office recently rescored the potential savings from proposed coordinated care models much lower than had been anticipated. The combined effect of these two developments is increased financial pressure on all health care issues, including Medicare and health reform.

With Congress discussing expanded Medicaid eligibility, CMA is strongly advocating that it is imperative to increase Medicaid provider rates to Medicare levels. Medicaid enrollees in California already face severe barriers to access to health care due to the program's woeful funding. Increasing the number of enrollees in the program without fixing the funding would be disastrous. CMA is making sure Congress understands that to expand coverage, they must increase reimbursement rates so that patients have access to a doctor. Otherwise, the coverage will be illusory.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-5176 or emcneil@cmanet.org.