On Friday, Secretary Mike Leavitt announced the current Medicare pricing system will be kept unchanged by the Department of Health and Human Services, as yesterday, Congress went on a short summer break, thus postponing its decision on settling a new price.  

This happened despite the thousands of doctors and other providers who were expecting a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare pricings starting Tuesday. Those with practices in rural areas will receive even bigger payments cuts. The current situation may last up to ten business days.

President Bush expressed his intention to veto the price-changing bill; one of the reasons for his decision is the fact that, as insurance company payments would be reduced (Medicare Advantage), the bill would bring a small payment increase to doctors starting next year.

This could add up to $14 billion cuts over a five-year period, although there was also another possible version talking about $47.5 billion spreading over eleven years.

This is quite a delicate issue these days. Rebecca Fisher, a National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman, considers that voters are being mislead by the Democrats into thinking the Republicans are to blame for the bill’s dismission. She goes on to say that it was actually the Democrats’ fault for not working alongside Republicans.