Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 02/2010

Addicted to the Physician Payment "Fix"

Bryan E. Dowd

November 2009

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

Congressional mismanagement of Medicare is a bipartisan project in which Democrats and Republicans set aside the rancor of party politics and ideological differences and work hand in hand to run the program into the ground. The latest attempts to "fix" physician payments by replacing a sizeable cut in Medicare fees with a small increase provide the evidence.