Whether the elderly continues to receive medical care under the Medicare program will be decided on Wednesday if the Congress will vote against a 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who care for millions of older Americans.

The House passed a bill to prevent the Medicare pay cut by a vote of 355 to 59 just before the Fourth of July recess, but Republicans blocked a similar measure in the Senate, according to the New York Times. Not only the Republicans but also the White House opposes a bill that would sustain doctors’ fees because it would be financed by cutting federal payments to insurance companies that offer private alternatives to Medicare.

The cut was scheduled to take effect on July 1 but the government decided on a two-week extension period in order to solve the reimbursement dispute.

The American Medical Association also got involved in this dispute backing the House’s decision and blaming Senate Republicans in a series of radio and TV commercials for a 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who care for Medicare patients, accusing them of favoring insurance companies over doctors and elderly patients. The AMA ads say these senators are aiding “powerful insurance companies at the expense of Medicare patients’ access to doctors.” The commercials pointed at 10 Republican senators, including seven up for election this fall.

Democrats need just one vote to pass the bill but with President Bush, vowing to veto the bill, the uncertainty could continue for weeks. In this context, doctors all over the country have begun to reassess their participation in Medicare. According to an AMA poll, more than 60 percent of the doctors involved declared they would considerably limit their number of Medicare patients.