Advantage, Medicare

The only good news coming from the Senate yesterday had to do with Medicare. Enough senators (69) voted for the measure to block a payment reduction to doctors who treat Medicare patients that there looks to be a solid chance for an override in both houses should the President follow through on his promise to veto the bill.

The emphasis of most stories on the vote was, and quite naturally so, the presence and vote of Senator Ted Kennedy. The old lion had returned to his lair to cast his vote, even though he's currently battling cancer. But this is one of those stories in which the back story is important.

Here's the NY Times article on the vote:

“Aye,” Mr. Kennedy said, flashing a thumbs-up when the clerk called his name. He was one of 69 senators to vote in favor, meaning that the bill has now a veto-proof majority in both Houses.

“I return to the Senate today to keep a promise to our senior citizens,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement released by his office, “and that’s to protect Medicare. Win, lose or draw, I wasn’t going to take the chance that my vote could make the difference.”

The bill would block a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors because of a statutory formula that reduces payments to doctors when spending would otherwise exceed certain goals. The 69 “yes” votes were 9 more than required to invoke cloture, and under a previous agreement the measure was considered to be approved after clearing that procedural hurdle. The measure had stalled on June 26, falling just short of the 60 threshold.

Buried deep within the story, however, is what I consider to be the significance of the vote and the promised veto:

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, in part because it would reduce payments to private Medicare Advantage plans offered by insurers like Humana, UnitedHealth and Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. [Emphasis added]

The White House wasn't concerned that many doctors would turn away Medicare patients because treating them would cost more than the government would pay. It was only concerned that those private insurers in the Medicare Advantage plans would have to take less government money in their scamming of the system.

I posted back in May about the Medicare Advantage plans and what it was costing us. That post was based on this May 21 editorial in the NY Times. Here are the numbers on those "Advantage" plans:

The government pays these plans 13 percent more, on average, than the same services would cost in the traditional Medicare program. The subsidies are even more egregious — averaging 17 percent above cost — for the so-called private fee-for-service plans within Medicare Advantage. All told, the unjustified subsidies will cost the government more than $50 billion from 2009 to 2012.

Well, 69 senators got the message and did the right thing (for a change). Here are those numbers (from today's NY Times):

Eighteen Republicans voted “yes,” as did all 49 of the Senate’s Democrats and the chambers two independents, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernard Sanders of Vermont.

I just wish that those 69 senators had thought as much of the Fourth Amendment yesterday.

All of that said, however, I do admit that I got teary-eyed seeing Sen. Kennedy vote and hearing the response from his peers at his entrance.

Godspeed, sir. Godspeed.