Dear Colleagues:

Dear Colleagues,

The bill, which also extends expired unemployment benefits, subsidies for health insurance premiums, and various tax breaks, would postpone the effective date of the massive cut to October 1.

Organized medicine has expressed outrage over the reimbursement reduction, arguing that it will force physicians to turn away Medicare patients and military families, whose coverage under TRICARE is based on Medicare rates. Last week, Senate Democrats unveiled legislation that would have postponed the effective date of the pay cut by 30 days, but Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) blocked the measure, saying sponsors hadn't provided a way to pay for its cost. That impasse angered the American Medical Association.

The political climate in Washington is too highly partisan and polarized for lawmakers to craft effective piecemeal reforms to address the health challenges facing the nation today, the ACP said in its annual "State of the Nation's Health Care" report. Those challenges include making health insurance coverage more affordable, available and secure; ensuring a sufficient supply of primary care physicians and specialists; and reforming payment and delivery systems to achieve better value.

But such measures can be achieved, the internists' organization said, if lawmakers take the House and Senate bills passed late last year and agree on a legislative pathway to enact a final bill.

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