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WASHINGTON - Members of Congress, led by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), voted Tuesday to override President Bush’s veto of H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.
An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of the House voted 383-41 to pass the bill and ensure that millions of seniors, military families and other beneficiaries would continue to receive the healthcare they need and deserve. The Senate soon followed with its own 70-26 vote ensuring that the measure would become law.
In remarks made on the House floor, Rangel thanked his colleagues for blocking the President's action and for making healthcare a top priority.
“President Bush demonstrated once again, a reckless, mean-spirited disregard for the health of our children, military families, our poor folks and our aged," said Rangel on the floor of the House. "This vote really isn’t a question of Republicans or Democrats supporting a bill. Instead, we are uniting the Congress to send a message to the President that he should think about what this bill would do for the American people. We wish he would be a partner, not a roadblock, to progress."
“When Senator Ted Kennedy rose from his sick-bed to cast his critical vote in favor of this bill last week, he wasn’t just a Democratic Senator speaking to the Senate, he was a man who demonstrated and embodied compassion for all of the things we believe in," continued Rangel. "He brought this Congress together and we must stay together, for the good of the American people.”
H.R. 6331 will prevent a 10.6 percent pay cut to physicians which was scheduled to take place on July 1, ensuring continued access to their physician for the over 1 million Medicare beneficiaries living in New York City. The bill will provide a 1.1 percent update in physician payments starting January 1, 2009. The law also includes important improvements for beneficiaries, such as Medicare mental health parity, improved preventive coverage, and enhanced low-income assistance. In addition, it provides measures to ensure prompt insurance payment to pharmacies for prescription drugs, and a delay of a Medicaid regulation that will result in lower generic drug reimbursement to pharmacies. It also includes an 18-month delay in implementation of the flawed competitive bidding program for more than 1,300 Durable Medical Equipment suppliers in the New York City area, and tens of thousands more in the other 79 metro areas covered by the bidding program.
The measure will also reduce Medicare Advantage Indirect Medical Education (IME) overpayments and make changes to the private fee for service program that impact network requirements, not payment levels. In addition, these efforts to rein in Medicare Advantage extends Medicare solvency.
H.R. 6331 first passed the House on June 24th by an overwhelming vote of 355-59. It soon passed the Senate 69-30 on July 9.
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