While the current SGR formula assumes a Medicare spending rate that is widely known to be incongruous with present costs,
politics trumped policy. Neither Republicans nor Democrats wanted to assume responsibility for a change that would cost $300
billion or more.
legislation from Republicans and
Democrats to re-shape the SGR and
make it more in-line with actual
costs, it remains the same.
A look at last summer’s
Congressional Joint Select
Committee on Deficit Reduction
(“the Supercommittee”) sheds some
light on why it has not been changed.
The bipartisan Supercommittee,
formed to address the federal government’s rising debt, was tasked with
issuing recommendations to cut over
$1.5 trillion from the federal budget.
If they failed to do so, or Congress
failed to pass their proposal, a number of spending cuts would automatically occur.
It was an opportunity for
Congress to reshape our nations’
most critical programs. Medicare
and Medicaid, defense, and taxes
were all prime for reworking. But
the Supercommittee could not find
consensus on the SGR or many other
policy areas.
