Medicare SGR sticker shock adds urgency to pay reform campaign - amednews.com

Medicare SGR sticker shock adds urgency to pay reform campaign - amednews.com

Medicare SGR sticker shock adds urgency to pay reform campaign

The price tag of a one-year Medicare payment patch rises to $25 billion as calls continue for a permanent measure to overhaul the program’s pay system.

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SGR History

Just looking up a little SGR history.

It was part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act passed under Congress controlled by Republicans and Clinton signed. It was designed to save $115 billion over ten years to avoid making any other painful, politically unpopular changes to Medicare.


In 1998, all the interested parties were pushing back:

"Everybody who got a tuck and a trim in 1997 wants more money," said Ari Fleischer, spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the nation's health care program for the elderly and disabled. "If everybody . . . gets more money, Medicare will go broke even faster.

And here we are, gearing up again...

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