I’ve mentioned President Obama’s pay-as-you-go (or, “paygo”) ideal as a means of dealing with deficit spending wrought by his current 2011 budget proposal. Concerning healthcare, Medicare cuts would be exempted under this paygo provision. Buried within the monstrous budget text is the adjustment totaling $371 billion to fend off Medicare cuts to physicians over the next 10 years.

For much of the past decade, physician providers of Medicare-covered services have been granted reprieve after reprieve from threatened cuts to the program. These yearly proposed cuts to Medicare are largely based upon the sustainable growth rate (SGR) — an economic indicator. Of course, these iterations without enactions have only added to the overall national debt. With Obama’s 2011 budgetary blueprint, the adjustment means that come March 1, physicians who see Medicare patients will be granted a temporary fix once again — as the Medicare growth rate is effectively zero percent for the next 10 years. Should Congress just vote to scrap the SGR formula upon which Medicare cuts and their rates are based, saving massive debt increases over that time?

According to the AMA, legislation to do just that would solve everything — advocating less costly alternatives to formulating a permanent fix to Medicare deficit spending as opposed to Obama’s temporary decade-long adjustments. What does the White House say? At this moment, it hasn’t taken an opinion on an SGR repeal effort. | LINK

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