Medicare Showdown

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In a stunning rebuke of President George W. Bush, the House and Senate voted July 15 in a strong bipartisan fashion to override a veto he had issued only hours earlier, erasing a scheduled reduction of 10.6% in the fees that Medicare pays physicians. At the risk of alienating the nation's doctors, Bush had vetoed the measure because he strongly objected to the way in which it covered the costs of eliminating the fee reduction: by cutting payments to private Medicare Advantage plans that contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. The House voted 383 to 41 and the Senate immediately followed with a 70-to-26 vote to overturn the veto and block the physician-fee cut that would have taken effect immediately. A total of 153 House Republicans and 21 GOP senators joined all voting Democrats to overturn the veto, which required a two-thirds majority in both chambers. By Congress's action, the bill became law without Bush's signature.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: