The foolish insurance companies are hit by an apparently unexpected-by-them problem. They did not believe that the events would happen the way that they did, as the House and Senate overrode Bush's veto in an unexpected bipartisan rallying, effectively canceling payment cuts to doctors, and cutting costs by simply paying insurers less.

Thus insurance companies, in their well-known arrogance, failed to negotiate an actual timeline of cutting payments gradually, relying on their Republican and Bush connections to thwart the cut-blocking bill. An unwise plan which eventually failed. Now, they will be hit by cuts which are bound to have a financial impact.

Bush and most Republicans in Congress wanted to cut Medicare costs by reducing by 10.6 percent payments to doctors treating Medicare patients, without taking money from insurers that run plans called Medicare Advantage. This program enables the government to provide health care by paying indirectly, through the insurance company, at an average premium of 13 percent over the costs of paying directly health care providers. The government pays $86 billion this year for the coverage.

The landmark Medicare bill, HR 6331, which blocks cuts in Medicare payments, was vetoed Tuesday by President Bush. Subsequently, both houses of Congress swiftly overrode the veto with large bipartisan majorities, turning the bill into law. In the House, 383 to 41 voted for overriding Bush's veto, with 153 Republicans defying the president. In the Senate, it was 70 to 26, with 21 Republican Senators rejecting the position of George W. Bush.

The bill is the brainchild of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who managed to put together in the now-law the most important issues concerning Medicare, needs extracted from complaints coming from patients, doctors, pharmacists, supplies providers, and more.

What eventually happened was that about 50 groups supported the bill, with only the insurers' group on the other side. The insurers' position thus became very hard to defend. Republican senators Kit Bond of Montana, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi initially voted against the bill, frustrated by the fact that Democrats did not want to compromise on some aspects, but voted to override the presidential veto in the end.

Now the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act was finally made law with the override of Bush’s veto.