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Committee on Ways and Means For Immediate Release Health Chairwoman Johnson Pushes for WASHINGTON, D.C. -Chairman Nancy Johnson (R-CT) said today seniors are in jeopardy of losing quality health care unless Congress acts quickly to increase payments to Medicare managed plans. Despite the fact that health care costs increased by 11 percent last year, and are expected to rise 12.7 percent this year, all Medicare health plans will receive just a 2 percent increase in payments, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday. “No health care provider can deliver quality services when their costs increase by 13 percent and reimbursement rises only 2 percent. This situation is outrageous and completely ignores our seniors’ need for quality health care,” said Johnson, Chairman of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. CMS announced the 2003 rates for Medicare managed care plans known as Medicare+Choice plans. Johnson said the new rate underscores the need for her bipartisan bill to increase funding for Medicare+Choice by $1.2 billion in 2003. "Millions of seniors rely on these plans for services traditional Medicare doesn’t provide, such as prescription drugs and annual physicals. That’s why they are so popular. The discrepancy between cost inflation and the new rates worsens already intolerable circumstances for Medicare beneficiaries," Johnson added. "The urgency of the need to reform Medicare+Choice reimbursement could not be more obvious. Our legislation is an important first step to save Medicare+Choice, but more must be done, including fundamental reform of the +Choice program," Johnson said. |