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In a refreshing burst of bi-partisanship, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have put out draft legislation to promote jobs, cut taxes, and save Medicare physicians from a 21% reduction in reimbursement rates.
- Update on Medicare Therapy Caps
- New jobs bill introduced
- Tax relief is in sight
Although blizzards and snow storms prevented Congress from completing work last week, Democrat Baucus’ and Republican Grassley’s proposal could help Americans who are unemployed and feel overtaxed. It also aims to strengthen the economy, and disability advocates are pleased with provisions to help Medicare and stop the Medicare therapy caps that we wrote about recently.
The proposal includes measures to:
- Provide employer tax relief for new employees who are hired in 2010
- Extend some tax provisions that ended in 2009
- Extend some unemployment benefits through May 2010
- Extend through May 2010 the COBRA assistance that subsidizes the health insurance premiums of unemployed workers
- Fix the Medicare payments for physicians for a set amount of time. Without this fix, doctors who see Medicare patients would face a 21 percent reduction in reimbursement, and many doctors have said they will not be able to afford to treat Medicare patients.
The bill includes provisions (not related to health care) to pay for the costs of the bill’s proposals so that enactment will not add to the deficit.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) issued a statement after the draft bill was circulated that said the legislation falls short of what is needed to stimulate the economy. The CBPP and other advocacy groups (including Spinal Cord Advocates) have advocated that Congress should extend the federal share of Medicaid costs because states are in such dire straits financially and that a jobs bill should do more to help unemployed workers.
Andrew Morris, MPH
Director of Legislation,
Spinal Cord Advocates
