WASHINGTON — President Bush cast what appears likely to be a futile veto on Tuesday, rejecting a bill that would protect doctors from cuts in their Medicare payments.
The president’s veto message to the House of Representatives said that he objected to the bill because it was “fiscally irresponsible” and relied on “short-term budget gimmicks” that do not address the long-term fiscal soundness of the Medicare program.
The bill would cancel a 10-percent cut in payments to doctors that would otherwise occur automatically because of a statutory formula that reduces payments when spending exceeds certain goals. The president said he supports the main objective of the bill, to forestall reduction in physicians’ payments, but that he has too many reservations about other aspects of the legislation.
Mr. Bush has opposed the bill in part because it would reduce federal payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, offered by insurers like Humana, UnitedHealth and Blue Cross and Blue Shield. In his veto message to Congress, Mr. Bush also complained that the bill would “perpetuate wasteful overpayments to medical equipment suppliers.”
The House is expected to vote quickly on overriding the veto, and there is no suspense about the outcome. The bill was originally approved in the House on June 24 by a vote of 355 to 59. It is in the Senate, where Democrats have a far narrower advantage than in the House, that there are lingering possibilities for true political drama.
When it came before the Senate in mid-June, the bill hit a stumbling block, falling just short of the 60 votes that were needed on a procedural measure under Senate rules before the bill itself could advance to a final vote. But last Wednesday, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, reappeared in the Senate for the first time since it was revealed that he has a brain tumor.
The atmosphere in the chamber was so electric that nine Republicans who had previously voted against the bill were jolted into supporting it instead, and it cleared the procedural hurdle and passed by a vote of 69 to 30. That exceeds the two-thirds majority that would be needed to overturn Mr. Bush’s veto, assuming that the senators hold their positions on the bill.
The Senate is likely to act soon after the House does.
Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine and one of the sponsors of the legislation, expressed disappointment over the veto. “The bill both protects health providers and preserves vital programs on which millions of beneficiaries rely, especially low-income seniors,” the senator said in a statement. “It is imperative we act without delay.”
www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/washington/16medic.html