Asks All Members and Friends of the Navy to Contact Congress

Action Alert

A 21% cut in Medicare and TRICARE payments to doctors took effect on Monday, March 1, because Congress failed to change current law. Congress may be preparing to act—temporarily. Congress can still avoid these cuts in payments that do effect TRICARE and TRICARE for Life beneficiaries. These cuts can be avoided, if Congress enacts legislation to delay/change these cuts within the next two weeks.

Because senators haven't been able to agree on a longer-term fix yet, the latest provision would extend the deadline one month—until 1 April "April Fool's Day"—to gain more time to win consensus. As you have seen Congress is not likely to gain consensus on many issues.

House leaders have cleared the way to pass the measure after the Senate does. The Senate already would have cleared it earlier this week by a "unanimous consent" procedure, but Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) objected due to total cost of the package that included many issues not related totaling $10.3 billion. Several senators wanted the bill to be paid by canceling certain stimulus package funding. So now the Senate has to go through a lengthier formal process. Without relief, these dramatic payment cuts will cause many doctors to stop seeing Medicare and TRICARE patients.

Please contact your legislators with the recommended letter urging them to make this essential fix for Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries. Just enter your name and address as requested.