Congress overrides veto, reduces fed money to Pharma.

[SirNitram]

Link

WASHINGTON — President Bush cast a futile veto on Tuesday, rejecting a bill that would protect doctors from cuts in their Medicare payments. But hours later, the House and Senate voted to override the veto, making the Medicare measure the fourth bill to become legislation over Mr. Bush’s opposition.

The president’s veto message to the House said that he objected to the bill because it was “fiscally irresponsible” and relied on “short-term budget gimmicks” that do not address the long-term fiscal soundness of the Medicare program.

But the House voted, 383 to 41, on Tuesday afternoon to override the veto. Soon afterward, the Senate voted by 70 to 26 to do so. Although the Senate vote was close enough to provide some suspense, it was still over the two-thirds needed, as a number of conservative Republicans who typically side with the president broke with him on this issue.

The bill cancels a 10-percent cut in payments to doctors that would otherwise occur automatically because of a statutory formula that reduces payments when spending exceeds certain goals. The president said he supported the main objective of the bill, to forestall reduction in physicians’ payments, but that he had too many reservations about other aspects of the legislation.

Mr. Bush said he opposed the bill in part because it would reduce federal payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, offered by insurers like Humana, UnitedHealth and Blue Cross and Blue Shield. In his veto message to Congress, Mr. Bush also complained that the bill would “perpetuate wasteful overpayments to medical equipment suppliers.”

The overwhelming House vote on Tuesday was not a surprise, because the bill was originally approved in the House on June 24 by a vote of 355 to 59. All 41 “no” votes on Tuesday were cast by Republicans.

But in the Senate, Democrats have a far narrower advantage than in the House, so there was some lingering political drama, until the vote late Tuesday afternoon.

When it came before the Senate in mid-June, the bill hit a stumbling block, falling just short of the 60 votes that were needed on a procedural measure under Senate rules before the bill itself could advance to a final vote. But last Wednesday, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, reappeared in the Senate for the first time since it was revealed that he has a brain tumor.

The atmosphere in the chamber was so electric that nine Republicans who had previously voted against the bill were jolted into supporting it instead, and it cleared the procedural hurdle and passed by a vote of 69 to 30.

Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine and one of the sponsors of the legislation, expressed disappointment over the veto. “The bill both protects health providers and preserves vital programs on which millions of beneficiaries rely, especially low-income seniors,” the senator said in a statement. “It is imperative we act without delay.”

Medical 'Advantage' was such a crock of shit. It's nice to see a pushback against it, however late.

[CaptainZoidberg]

Bush is sure an interesting man to lecture about fiscal responsibility.

[Durandal]

Boy, wish they were as adamant about the Fourth Amendment as they are about pharmaceutical companies. Then maybe we'd have a functioning government instead of a borderline police state.