On the recordMarch 31, 2014
as the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee--16 working days on the job--it is humbling to be parachuted late into the issue of reimbursing doctors for Medicare services, and I intend to be brief here at the outset of this debate. All sides agree that the current system for paying doctors, known as the SGR, does not work well for seniors, the many gifted physicians who serve them, or taxpayers. Devised in 1997, the SGR sets an annual cost target for Medicare physician payments, and it is honored more in the breach than in the observance. When the SGR is not met, the Congress says that is OK, we will just apply a patch and we will punt. Patch it up and let that SGR limp along, just as it has year after year after year. Mr. President and colleagues, there have now been 16 of these patches--16--and every Senator who I talk to says that just defies common sense and it seems bizarre even by Beltway standards. The cost of the patches now resembles the cost of the full repeal. To his great credit, the majority leader, Senator Reid, has repeatedly said his first choice for dealing with this issue is to finally repeal the SGR. Now is the ideal time for repealing SGR. The cost of full repeal is far less than anticipated. Thoughtful, bipartisan work has been done in the House and the Senate on repeal and replace, and leading advocates for seniors and their doctors want to replace the status quo with real reform.…
