WEB EXTRA!
Two topics -- the new Medicare law and health care for the uninsured -- sparked political leaders' comments to AAFP members and family medicine leaders during the Family Medicine Congressional Conference May 19 - 20.
Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., touted last year's passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act as a positive first step in fixing the health care system, adding that the next step is solving physician reimbursement problems. "Every aspect of the (Medicare) program is, frankly, in as near a state of collapse as any program I've ever worked on," she said during a May 20 breakfast at the conference.
Rep. James Cooper, D-Tenn., argued that the current funding to provide health care to the uninsured amounts to little more than window dressing.
"It's just talk unless you can dig up the money from national parks or transportation, agriculture or education," he said.
Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said there were major holes in the landmark Medicare law. Dingell chatted briefly with several Michigan AFP members on May 20 immediately after announcing in a congressional hearing that he and other key House leaders would introduce legislation to automatically enroll low-income Medicare beneficiaries for the $600 subsidy offered under the new Medicare prescription drug card program. The Michigan AFP members overheard Dingell's statements at the hearing.
"It is not that I find these cards evil. I do, however, find them often misleading, consistently confusing and of dubious workability," Dingell said.
Johnson told conference participants the health challenges facing the country are too important for physicians not to be involved. "It's important that physicians know what the debates are," she said. "If you don't stand up as professionals and be part of the debate, we will act anyway."
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