Why do today what could happen after another two-week vacation?
Doctors are battling children's health and seniors' advocates in an
intense lobbying campaign on the "doc fix" bill pending in the Senate when it returns from recess. The bill passed the House before break, and must be passed within two days of the Senate reconvening or cuts will kick in on physician reimbursements for Medicare. The doctors are fighting for the bill as is, advocates are hoping for amendments.
The 263-page package was approved overwhelmingly by the House, but represents a delicately negotiated compromise. Proponents fear the last-minute demands could sink a bill crafted in part by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
"We're saying, 'Please, please, please don't amend it,'" a spokesperson from one doctor's group said. […]
The package would extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for two years, but some lobbying groups want four years. [...]
AARP is concerned with the way lawmakers plan to pay for the $200 billion bill – in part by raising costs on some beneficiaries.
The senior group’s healthcare lobbyist, Ariel A. Gonzalez is proposing changes to the legislation that would offer some assistance to people who could be forced to pay more.
Ed Walz, the vice president of communications for First Focus Campaign for Children, says that "[w]e've had interesting—and interested—conversations about a very real possibility of an amendment" to get four years instead of two for CHIP. But the doctors' groups are pushing for what they're euphemistically calling a "clean" bill, as in "[w]e really think a clean bill would hasten the process and that amendments would probably just slow the process down," from Dr. Robert Wergin, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
The bill is definitely not clean. It stopped being a "clean" fix of the Medicare reimbursement issue once Republicans negotiated an unnecessary anti-abortion provision into it on community health center funding. Women's groups, however, are apparently not lobbying on the bill, probably called off by the House pro-choice caucus which signed off on the superfluous anti-abortion language.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suggested that the Senate take up the bill before they left for recess, right after the House passed it and allowing for a couple of amendments with very tight time allotments for debate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opted for leaving a little early. Chances are pretty good the doctors will win on this one, and the bill will pass with time to spare and no amendments, leaving children's health insurance poised to have to fight for itself again in two years and one the Hyde amendment on abortion funding encroaching even further.