Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — The House has voted to add more than $200 billion to the deficit to spare doctors from a huge reduction in Medicare payments.
The measure passed Thursday on a near party- line vote of 243 to 183. Republicans called it a political payoff to the American Medical Association for endorsing House Democrats’ larger health care overhaul bill, which Democrats denied.
Without action by Congress, doctors will face a 21 percent reduction in Medicare payment rates in January because of a flawed reimbursement formula.
The AMA wants a permanent fix and has lobbied heavily for that, but it failed in the Senate last month in an embarrassing defeat for Democrats and the doctors group.
