Subject: [big campaign] McCain's Opposition To Medicare Compromise Could Have Jeopardized Women's Health
From: "Adam Jentleson (CAPAF)" <[email-masked]>
To: "big campaign" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:42:53 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

McCain's Opposition To Medicare Compromise Could Have Jeopardized
Women's Health
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/07/11/mccain-women-medicare/> 

Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will hold a women-only forum
<http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/24445164.html>  in Hudson, Wisconsin
"to bolster his support among women." But McCain's repudiation
<http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/526cd374-5c0f-40
e2-9b0f-d72b062d07a8.htm> of the Senate's recent compromise to halt the
cut in Medicare physician reimbursement rates
<http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0&fp=48776b54fdacf97a&ei=t
nR3SKe_Oo6SygTO0KS9Bw&url=http%3A//www.alternet.org/healthwellness/91003
/%3Fses%3D845680946f6bdfee7b308e518eb9db40&cid=0&usg=AFQjCNHTF6TL9uAo8uv
xt7OXjgVCYgbE9Q>  undermines women's access to affordable health care.

While the senator said he supported providing "proper reimbursements to
Medicare physicians
<http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/526cd374-5c0f-40
e2-9b0f-d72b062d07a8.htm> ," he opposed the compromise because it tried
to eliminate the government's overpayments
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/07/02/medicare-physician-cuts/>
to Medicare Advantage plans. Thus, when given the choice between
protecting womens' access to physicians and continuing to subsidize
private insurance companies, McCain agreed with President Bush
<http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/bush-will-veto-medicare-bill-white-
house-says-2008-07-10.html>  and chose the latter.

But low Medicare reimbursement rates have already led many OBGYNs to
stop accepting Medicare
<http://articles.latimes.com/2002/nov/04/nation/na-medicare4>  patients.
In 2002, for instance, The Los Angeles Times reported that some Medicare
patients "had a hard time finding
<http://articles.latimes.com/2002/nov/04/nation/na-medicare4>  a
gynecologist and an ophthalmologist":

	Three or four OB/GYN offices told her they were not accepting
new Medicare patients. Finally, she persuaded a friend's doctor to take
her. But now the 75-year-old is afraid her new doctors will drop her.
"You've got to be careful not to step on your doctor's toes," Bowers
said. "They don't want to mess" with Medicare because of the low
payments.

Similarly, in 2003, OB-GYN News reported that "Ob.gyn. practices are
being affected as physicians nationwide are rethinking treating Medicare
patients <http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-2780929_ITM>
" and have "begun limiting the number of Medicare patients they take
on...or-in some cases-have stopped caring for Medicare patients
entirely."

McCain's choice to side with the insurance companies would have further
restricted women's access to doctors who simply couldn't afford the
lower payments:

	- "Steven Polansky, who's been an obstetrician and gynecologist
in Sacramento, Calif., since 1977, said he couldn't afford a 10.6
percent pay cut from Congress..."We haven't gotten a raise from anybody
in centuries," Polansky said in an interview. "And it is becoming more
and more difficult to run a private practice
<http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/43362.html> ."

	- "There's a threshold out there beyond which people can't keep
their doors open
<http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.asp?n=1&neID=200807021180.3.10_9200
00000031b583> ," added Jerry McLaughlin, a Hobbs obstetrician and
gynecologist who is the former president of the New Mexico Medical
Society."

	- "'We can't compete with other cities,' said local OB/GYN Dr.
Paul Kocay. Some doctors already are moving towards cash-only practices
<http://web.dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=504511142d5c54c5> . These
'boutique medicine' clinics are going to increase if these cuts are
enacted. Local doctors are between the 10th and 20th percentile in
national salary averages. This could become a crisis situation in
Kerrville."

As the Wonk Room has pointed out again
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/11/mccain-women-want/>  and
again
<http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/17/mccain-hates-condoms/> ,
McCain is not what women want.

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/07/11/mccain-women-medicare/

-----
Adam Jentleson
Communications and Outreach Director
The Hyde Park Project, Center for American Progress Action Fund
202-247-8614

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