On Tuesday, July 15, President Bush vetoed a Medicare bill passed by the House and Senate, but both chambers overrode the veto later in the day to make the bill a law. The Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R. 6331) won large bipartisan support in each chamber as members of Congress ignored the administration's opposition to cutting Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to pay for other provisions in the bill. President Bush vetoed the bill because he believed that “taking choices away from seniors to pay physicians is wrong."

Opponents of the bill, including many health insurance companies that offer MA plans, believe that the cuts would decrease the plans ability to offer flexibility and choice to seniors. MA plans are paid approximately 15 percent more than traditional Medicare plans and these additional payments are meant to offer seniors more benefits.

The cornerstone of the Medicare bill provides for an update to the payment formula for physician fees which was slated for a 10.6 percent cut this month. But the bill also included many other provisions that are part of NSBA’s broad health care reform proposal, including coverage of additional preventive services, an extension of the quality reporting system to be used in a pay-for-performance system and incentives for electronic prescribing of medicine.

Medicare only provides health insurance coverage to people aged 65 and older; however, private insurers often look to Medicare to adopt new and different policies on health insurance. NSBA is pleased with the inclusion of principles in its broad health care reform proposal in this Medicare legislation, and looks forward to using these achievements to continue the dialog with policymakers on reforming the nation’s private health insurance system.