DON’T PATCH IT, REPEAL IT! Call Congress Now! (800) 833-6354 (Takes 2 Min.)
Dear Physicians,
CMA needs all physicians to call Congress and tell them to FIX THE MEDICARE SGR NOW! The deadline is March 31, 2014, and Congress is starting to schedule floor votes. To overcome the opposition and political brinksmanship going on in Congress right now, we need a massive number of physicians to call and email Congress. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST GRASSROOTS CALL TO ACTION
Here’s the latest from Washington, DC.
Later this week, the House Republican leadership has scheduled a vote on the SGR repeal and Medicare payment reform legislation (HR 4015). As you know, it was adopted by three committees in the House and Senate on a bipartisan, bicameral basis. It is the most progress Congress has made on SGR reform in a decade.
Unfortunately, the leadership are funding it with a repeal of the ACA individual mandate. If the mandate is repealed, the government will spend less on premium subsidies, resulting in a cost savings. This partisan funding mechanism will not be an acceptable or viable funding source in the U.S. Senate. Therefore, the House Republican leadership have scheduled a second vote the last week in March to adopt another short-term, nine-month SGR patch to stop the cuts until January 1, 2015.
Until now, Congress has been working on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to move the SGR legislation. This is an extremely disappointing turn of events. It shows how difficult it will be for Congress to cut other Medicare providers to pay for the SGR repeal in an election year. To overcome the opposition from other Medicare providers and the political brinksmanship, physicians need to contact their representatives and senators TODAY!
CMA has issued several “Call to Action” messages to the physician membership over the last few weeks. The CMA Executive Committee and physician leaders from across the state were in Washington, DC, last week pushing Congress to adopt the SGR repeal and replace bill (HR 4015 / S 2000) with bipartisan funding sources. We strongly opposed efforts to adopt another nine-month patch that would undermine the incredible progress that has been made this year. Yesterday we sent another Call to Action out in CMA ALERT — March 10.
It literally only takes 2 minutes to make the call and send the email.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP! IT IS NOW OR NEVER!
California Medical Association