AMA to Chicago Tribune: Medicare reform

Chicago Tribune
Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

I have grave concerns about the overall stability of the Medicare program. Our nation needs to find a permanent solution to this problem to ensure this and future generations of Medicare beneficiaries have access to the health care they need. Drastic payment cuts to physicians are not the answer. Unless Congress intervenes, Medicare is scheduled to cut payments to physicians by 10 percent in 2008, and that is just the beginning. Additional cuts are on tap for each of the following nine years so that by 2016, Medicare payment rates for physicians will be 41 percent lower than in 2007, even though physicians' costs are expected to rise by 20 percent over that same time frame.

This widening gap between payments and cost of care makes it extremely difficult for many physicians to continue accepting new Medicare patients at a time when Baby Boomers are about to begin entering Medicare by the millions. An American Medical Association survey found that nearly half of physicians would be forced to limit the number of new Medicare patients in their practices if a cut of 5 percent occurred — just half of next year's cut.

Congress needs to begin working on long-term reform of the Medicare program.

Sincerely,

Cecil Wilson, MD
AMA Board Chair