In the annals of American health policy, there’s a legendary bit of absurdity remembered as the “doc fix.” In 1997, Congress tried to save money by passing a formula that automatically cut a bit of what Medicare pays doctors each year. But they screwed the formula up, and in 2002, cut doctors’ reimbursements way more than originally intended. But lawmakers couldn’t agree on a fix: The cuts were already scheduled, which made government budgets look better, so permanently canceling the formula required finding money somewhere else.
Their solution was to just kick the can down the road by delaying the cuts. Then they still couldn’t figure out what to do. So when the delay ran out, they passed another delay, and another. Congress did this 17 times between 2003 and 2014, before they finally ponied up the $141 billion necessary to end the fiasco once and for all.
You can see where this is going: The GOP has had six years to figure out an ObamaCare replacement. If they haven’t settled on one by now, there’s no reason to think they will in another two or three or four years. Once their delay runs out, if they’re still in power, the Republicans will just have to pass another delay. If the Democrats are back in power, they’ll want to cancel the repeal outright, but the GOP won’t let that happen. The compromise position will also be to pass another delay.
The ObamaCare repeal will become the new doc fix.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member