The Hill reports that Senate Republicans are beginning to receive some blowback for their vote prior to the July 4 recess to keep the Medicare bill (H.R. 6331) from moving forward.
Physician groups around the country are angry with Republicans who did not support Medicare legislation, and are gearing up to go after them this election cycle.
Medical societies in Texas, Mississippi and New Hampshire — states where GOP senators face difficult reelection challenges this year — are taking a hard look at whether to withhold their support for incumbents who voted against the bill on June 26. One state group has already acted and others could follow, given the American Medical Association’s (AMA) vehemence on the vote.
“We’re outraged that they did not vote for it,” said Charmain Kanosky, executive director of the Mississippi State Medical Association, of her home-state Republican senators, Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, both of whom are up for reelection this year. The association previously endorsed both men.
The Mississippi group is arranging meetings with both senators. “The outcome of those conversations will have a great deal of bearing on what we might do,” she said.
For their part, the two Mississippi Senators have responded to the attacks as is noted in this article.
The Hill notes that the Medicare vote could end up costing those members up for re-election in campaign donations. “Four of the top 20 recipients of campaign cash from physicians and other health professionals are Republicans who voted against the Medicare bill, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics,” the article states.
It doesn’t appear that this outside pressure will be going away anytime soon either, as the article also mentions that the American Medical Association “is running television ads this week in New Hampshire, along with Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming, that call out by name 10 senators who voted against the bill.”
The focus of these ads is on Senators up for re-election in the Fall.
As we’ve noted, members of both parties support the major provisions within the Medicare bill, namely the “doctors fix” which replaces a scheduled 10.6% physician payment cut with a 1% increase. Senate Republicans object to offsetting the cost of the bill by taking money away from Medicare Advantage, a program allowing individuals to choose their own private insurer.
More information on last week’s vote on the bill can be found here.
Update: This bill has passed.
