Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he is again disappointed that legislation that would have prevented a scheduled 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians and makes some significant improvements to the Medicare program was blocked from consideration. The bill, which Bingaman cosponsored in its stand-alone form, needed 60 votes to be brought up for consideration; it received just 59 votes.

The physician cuts were scheduled to occur on January 1, 2008, but Congress passed a temporary delay through the end of this month. The bill not only would have prevented any cuts in Medicare reimbursements for 18 months, it also would have provided a 1.1 percent increase in reimbursements payments to physicians and bonuses for doctors serving rural communities.

“President Bush had threatened to veto this bill, but I confess I’m disappointed that we were blocked once again from even considering it,” Bingaman said. “Because we fell one vote shy of 60, Medicare recipients and their doctors will suffer. That is an untenable situation.”

At Bingaman’s urging, the measure included provisions that would have significantly improved assistance for low-income Americans in meeting their Medicare cost-sharing requirements. Bingaman pressed to include the proposals to make it easier for seniors to qualify for help in paying their prescription drug premiums, lowering the income threshold that determines which low-income seniors qualify for cost-sharing assistance and other similar benefits, and significantly expands initiatives that reach out to and enroll seniors in Medicare low-income programs.

The bill also contained $100 million to help pay for health care provided to Medicare recipients at Community Health Centers, bolster payments to rural Medicare providers, improves Medicare chronic care services, and makes several important changes to the Medicare prescription drug program.

Bingaman is a member of the Finance Committee and helped craft this measure.