The health reform debate in Washington took a new turn this week, when President Obama called on Congress to give health reform an up or down vote by March 18. Practically speaking, the President wants Congress to pass the Senate health reform bill, making any necessary compromise changes through a budget reconciliation bill that would only require a majority vote in the Senate. CMA opposes the Senate bill in its current form. Therefore, if Congress proceeds with the Senate bill, CMA is urging that the following changes be made to through the budget reconciliation process.

• Eliminate the IPAB, an independent, unaccountable board tasked with making automatic cuts to Medicare spending under certain conditions,
• Ensure quality reporting safeguards and due process for physicians to protect the accuracy of the information.
• Include the liability protections contained in the House bill, which protects MICRA and ensures that any practice guidelines or payment policies established in the bill do not increase liability exposure for physicians.
• Repeal the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, which is scheduled to cut physician payments more than 40 percent over the next few years,
• Increase Medicaid physician reimbursement rates,
• Include the $300 million House-passed California GPCI fix, which updates the California Medicare physician payment locality borders.
• Allow patients to privately contract with physicians.

CMA believes these areas of concern must be addressed if health reform is to deliver on its promise of increased access to care.

CMA remains committed to meaningful health care reform that provides universal access to doctors, makes insurance affordable for low-income families, allows patients who have insurance they like to keep it, and prohibits insurers from denying insurance to those with pre-existing conditions.

CMA sent a delegation of physicians and medical students to Washington, D.C. last week to deliver this message to key elected officials in Congress and the White House. We will continue to advocate strongly for health care reform that keeps the many positive facets of our health care system, while fixing those in need of repair.

Contact: Elizabeth McNeil, 415/882-3376 or emcneil@cmanet.org.