Avoid Medicare meltdown

Unless the U.S. Senate acts, on March 1 seniors in Florida will wake up facing a new reality where access to health care and choice of physician is severely limited - a Medicare meltdown due to a drastic 21 percent payment cut to physicians caring for Medicare patients.

The physicians of Florida, together with the American Medical Association, are calling on the Senate to permanently repeal the broken Medicare physician payment formula that causes this cut and puts health care access and choice at risk. Seven times in seven years, Congress has taken short-term actions to stop the annual cut, recognizing the devastating impact steep cuts would have on physicians' ability to care for Medicare patients.

Short-term fixes have caused instability in Medicare, eroding its physician foundation. The impact of these delaying tactics is already being felt by seniors. About one in four seniors nationwide looking for a new primary care physician already has trouble finding one, according to Congress' advisory body for Medicare. Florida's senators, Bill Nelson and George LeMieux, should take this news as a harbinger of what is to come for seniors if action isn't taken now to repeal the broken Medicare payment formula.

Consider Florida's own situation: The state has an above-average percentage of Medicare patients (16 percent) compared to the rest of the country. At the same time, 48 percent of Florida's practicing physicians are over age 50 - the age at which many physicians consider reducing their workloads.

Florida recently landed on an American Medical Association list of 21 "Patient Access Hot Spots" where patients already face problems getting physician care. Couple these facts with the looming 21 percent cut, and access and choice of physician will be greatly diminished for the more than 3.6 million seniors, disabled and military families in Florida who rely on government health insurance programs.

This dire outlook does not even take into account the coming tsunami of baby boomers into the Medicare program. If Congress does not take action now to repeal the formula that causes these annual cuts, boomers will be in for a shock when they begin seeking health care under Medicare next year. Military families also are at risk from the cuts because their government health coverage program, TRICARE, ties its physician payment rates to Medicare.

Medicare projects a 21 percent cut for this year, but the price tag of reform has skyrocketed to $210 billion.

The longer Congress procrastinates on this issue, the bigger the price for taxpayers. This is not fiscally responsible. Both the White House and the House of Representatives recognize this and have already taken actions to help fix the problem.

Now the Senate also must act to replace the current broken payment formula with one that better reflects the cost of providing 21st century medical care. This year's cut was delayed until March 1 to give Congress time to make good on its promises of permanent reform.

Seniors, baby boomers and military families in Florida are counting on Nelson and LeMieux to act to avoid a Medicare meltdown.