Medicare Faces Veto
July 11, 2008

Earlier this week, we asked you to email your senators to approve H.R. 6331, which would reverse the 10.6% cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments and the suspension of physical/speech therapy coverage for hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries that took effect July 1.

You responded with 30,000 e-mails to the Senate in 24 hours (20,000 in the first six hours) and the Senate responded positively - passing the fix by a vote of 69-to-30.

But we’re not out of the woods yet, because the President has threatened to veto the fix when it reaches his desk because he disagrees with the funding methodology.

It takes a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to override a presidential veto. The 69-30 vote in the Senate and the earlier 355-59 vote in the House would meet that threshold — if all of those positive votes hold firm.

But the votes weren’t really as solid as they appear. In both the House and the Senate, a significant number of Republicans initially voted “nay”, but changed their votes after it became apparent that the bill would pass anyway over their objection. So it’s no sure thing those legislators would stand up to White House pressure in the event of a veto override vote.

The overriding issue (no pun intended) for MOAA is to get this fix in law immediately. The time for quibbling over where the money comes from is over. This game of playing chicken with seniors and military health care has already gone too far, since the payment cuts already have been imposed, and beneficiary access already has been placed at risk.

MOAA wants this bill signed so Congress can get on with the rest of the nation’s pressing business, including finishing the FY2009 Defense Authorization Act. The longer these political squabbles go on, the greater the risk for Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries.

Please take a minute of your time to use MOAA’s Web site to urge President Bush to sign this important legislation and put that risk behind us.

Source: MOAA Legislative Update

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