Physicians Groups Decry Proposed U.S. Budget

The American College of Physicians has spoken out against President Bush’s FY2008 healthcare budget.

The budget does not include funds to offset a pending cut in Medicare payments to physicians — a development the ACP feels will accelerate the collapse of primary care, create access problems, and manufacture obstacles to fundamental reform of physician payment policies.

"This Medicare payment cut will cause severe access problems and will stand in the way of achieving long-standing and fundamental reforms in physician payment policy to support quality improvement and patient-centered primary and principal care," ACP President Lynne M. Kirk, MD, FACP emphasized in a statement. "It is essential that lawmakers agree on a longer-term fix that will provide positive and stable updates, create sustained incentives for quality improvement, and support patient-centered care coordinated by a personal physician."

As it currently stands, the budget seeks to squeeze some $101.5 billion of savings from Medicare and Medicaid over the next five year. The two plans cover more than one in four Americans.

ACP instead proposes that Congress take steps to expand Medicaid to all individuals with incomes below the federal poverty level.

"Congress should review the President’s budget requests and assure adequate funding for programs that are critical to the health care of low-income children and adults, the elderly and veterans," continued Dr. Kirk. "Congress should also move forward on comprehensive reforms to expand health insurance to the nearly 47 million Americans who now lack coverage."