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Obama Urges For Fair Pay For Doctors

(RTTNews) - In his Weekly Address on Saturday morning, President Barack Obama called on the Senate Republicans to allow a vote to prevent a 21% pay cut for doctors who see Medicare patients.

Obama said that, if the Republicans do not allow the proposal to pass, doctors will be receiving less Medicare reimbursements next week that could result in some doctors stop seeing Medicare patients.

Obama noted that, since 2003, Congress, under both Republican and Democratic leadership, has deferred these cuts in Medicare reimbursements from going into effect.

In his address, Obama, stated that, "Now, I realize that simply kicking these cuts down the road another year is not a long-term solution to this problem. For years, I have said that a system where doctors are left to wonder if they'll get fairly reimbursed makes absolutely no sense"

The President added that "we're already taking significant steps to slow the growth of Medicare costs through health insurance reform - not by targeting doctors and seniors, but by eliminating 50% of the waste, fraud, and abuse in the system by 2012. This not only strengthens Medicare, it saves taxpayer dollars"

In addition, Obama noted that he is committed to permanently reforming the Medicare formula and to take the difficult steps necessary to lower the cost of Medicare. However, Obama stated that he is not willing to do that by punishing physicians or the millions of Americans who count on Medicare.