Traverse City Record-Eagle

Opinion

February 17, 2012

Forum: Delays threaten health care

BY Peter W. Carmel, M.D. ----

A 27 percent cut is looming on March 1 for seniors and military families who rely on Medicare and TRICARE.

Now is the time for Congress to act to eliminate the cause of this problem — a broken Medicare physician payment formula that threatens access to health care for seniors and military families who depend on these programs.

The scheduled cut would force many physicians to limit the number of Medicare and TRICARE patients they see.

We're already seeing some signs that seniors are having trouble finding Medicare physicians. Twenty-two percent of Medicare patients looking for a new primary care physician had trouble finding one, according to a 2010 report by Congress' Medicare advisory committee.

A 27 percent cut would make this much worse.

Instead of permanently eliminating the flawed Medicare physician payment formula, Congress has continued to make costly short-term patches to temporarily delay the cuts it triggers.

The cost to taxpayers for permanent elimination of the formula has increased from $48 billion in 2005 to $300 billion today.

If Congress continues to use patches, the cost will reach $600 billion in five years. The cost to permanently eliminate this harmful formula will never be less than it is now.

There is a unique opportunity right now to use projected spending for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to eliminate the flawed formula and protect access to care for seniors and military families.

As operations in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, projected spending that won't be used on war becomes available to ensure access to care for our military and seniors — without adding to the nation's deficit.

Now is the time to put an end to this issue. Contact your legislators at www.patientsactionnetwork.com or by calling (888) 434-6200 and tell them to fix this problem by eliminating the formula now.

About the author: Dr. Peter W. Carmel is president of the American Medical Association.

About the forum: The forum is a periodic column of opinion written by Record-Eagle readers in their areas of interest or expertise. Submissions of 500 words or less may be made by e-mailing letters@record-eagle.com. Please include biographical information and a photo.

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