Democrats lose vote to stop steep physician payment cuts

Full Story at CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Democrats lost a key vote Wednesday on a controversial $247 billion measure designed to ensure that doctors experience no cut in Medicare reimbursement payments over the next 10 years.

The proposal was blocked in a 47-to-53 vote. Thirteen Democrats broke with their party’s leadership to join a unanimous Republican opposition.

The measure, known as “doc fix,” had been separated from broader proposals to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

Under the bill proposed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, Congress would have overriden a formula set more than a decade ago to prevent Medicare costs from rising faster than planned. The formula calls for cutting projected Medicare reimbursements to doctors.

Stabenow’s bill would have reversed those cuts, just as Congress has done repeatedly since the formula was imposed in 1997.