Impasse Blocks Mcare Relief and Abatement this Year
Last stand shows bipartisan support for abatement
Despite unrelenting pressure from the medical community, as the legislative session winds to an end hope is fading that the administration and the General Assembly will reach a compromise on Mcare relief in 2008. (Find out what happens next.)
The week of Oct. 6, both the administration and Senate Republicans had exchanged brief outlines of their latest compromise proposals for Mcare relief and coverage for the uninsured. The Senate concluded its substantive work for the two-year legislative session on Oct. 8. The House will conclude its work in mid-November.
Gov. Ed Rendell had floated a proposal on Oct. 7 for a five-year Mcare phase-out, including a five-year abatement and limited expansion of AdultBasic coverage for the uninsured. The Senate Republicans responded with a proposal that would include three years for Mcare phase-out and abatement, but a much smaller expansion of AdultBasic coverage. No agreement on a compromise had been reached as of Oct. 9.
Earlier in the week, the Senate Republicans indicated they would provide more details of their proposal in writing. But with only brief outlines and few details of either proposal, the Society has so far been unable to determine key components, such as whether either proposal would fully retired the Mcare Fund’s unfunded liability.
Physician grassroots involvement
Meanwhile, on Oct. 8, a bill to extend Mcare abatement for one year failed to make progress beyond the House but garnered strong bipartisan support for getting something done on abatement.
Such indications of widespread understanding of the need for Mcare relief are in large part due to the diligent work of the medical community to infuse cooperation into the negotiations and create bipartisan support for a compromise.
The Medical Society—along with The Hospital and Healthsystem Association, the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society (POS), other medical specialty and county societies, and supporters throughout Pennsylvania’s health care community—was very gratified by the strong grassroots response to contact legislators and the governor.
Physicians statewide made hundreds of visits, thousands of phone calls, and sent a steady stream of emails to the governor and their state senators and representatives. The Society sent a letter on Oct. 2, signed jointly with POS, to Gov. Rendell urging a sustainable, incremental, fiscally sound compromise solution.
At last count, every state Senator and most members of the House had been visited by a physician or received numerous calls or emails. The governor’s phone was apparently ringing constantly. One physician who contacted the governor’s office reported that the receptionist complained she “had been getting Mcare calls all day long.”
Last Updated: 10/10/2008