TMA News
Release
TMA NEWS RELEASE - FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 5, 2010
Physicians,
Patients Launch Medicare Petition Drive to Congress
Medicare, the foundation of America’s health system, is crumbling
and needs permanent
repair, Texas physicians told Congress today.
Texas Medical Association (TMA) physician
leaders across Texas unveiled their open letter to Congress and launched a petition
drive. The petition urges Congress to fix the flawed payment formula that threatens
care for Texas’ 2.5 million Medicare recipients, including senior citizens and
people with disabilities, and 850,000 military family members covered by TriCare.
Doctors and patients united at
seven locations across Texas on Monday with pens and purpose —to stop the
Medicare Meltdown. TMA will deliver the petitions and letters to Congress in
Washington, D.C.
“For a Medicare patient, a doctor
can mean everything: independence, hope, and security,” said TMA President William
H. Fleming III, MD, at Monday’s Houston patient/physician gathering. “But
Medicare patients are feeling anything but secure about the future of their
health care. Every year for a decade, physicians and other providers have faced
steep Medicare cuts that jeopardize our ability to care for our patients.”
Each year Congress slaps a
temporary Band-Aid on the problem, postponing a steep cut to a later date. The
most recent cut, 21.2 percent, went into effect on April Fools’ Day, and
Congress is expected to place another temporary patch on the problem when it
reconvenes next week. It would be the third patch this year alone. “This
ongoing uncertainty hurts patients and their doctors. Patients need to know
their doctor will be there when they need them,” added Dr. Fleming.
“We need more than Band-Aids,”
Dr. Fleming said in TMA’s open letter to Congress. “We need more than sutures.
We need a complete transplant. This is all about Medicare patients’ access to
physicians’ care. Congress created this problem, and only Congress can fix it.”
He noted that he and other physicians desperately want to continue to take care
of their Medicare patients — that’s why they became doctors.
“Our goal is to gather 1 million
signatures and share them with Congress and the president,” said Dr. Fleming. “Medicare
patient access to care is in jeopardy across Texas and America, and we must
send a clear message to our leaders how urgently we need them to step up and
stop the Medicare Meltdown now.”
“Our seniors, patients with
disabilities, and military families deserve better than the on-again/off-again
health plan Medicare has become,” Susan R. Bailey, MD, TMA’s president-elect, said
at the event in Fort Worth. “The only acceptable solution is for Congress to
repeal the flawed Medicare formula and replace it with a stable, fair funding mechanism
that reflects the true cost of providing care.”
Doctors say their Medicare
patients routinely ask them if they know of other physicians — both specialists
and primary care — who will see and care for them. Finding doctors to care for new
Medicare patients is a constant struggle, they say.
TMA doctors invite patients
across Texas to join the grassroots effort to save Medicare by signing the online
petition. The petition drive is asking Congress to stop the Medicare meltdown
so patients can choose their doctors and their doctors can stay in the program.
A link to an easy-to-complete
online petition is at www.MeAndMyDoctor.com.
Congress just passed major health
system reform legislation without solving the Medicare problem. “That is like
building a house on a shaky foundation. We must tell Congress to continue its
work, and fix the crumbling foundation of our health care system,” added Dr.
Bailey. “Throughout the health system reform discussion, we asked Congress to ‘keep
what’s good in our health care system and fix only what’s wrong.’ This Medicare
problem is one of the biggest examples of what is still wrong.”
TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation,
representing nearly 45,000 physician
and medical student members. It is located in
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Contact: Pam Udall (512) 370-1382; cell: (512)
413-6807; e-mail: pam.udall@texmed.org
Brent Annear (512) 370-1381; cell: (512)
656-7320; e-mail: brent.annear@texmed.org