Military Officers: Congress "playing chicken with your health care"

So there is this bill being considered in Congress that would delay a 10.6% pay cut to physicians treating Medicare patients and would pay for it by giving less of a giveaway subsidy to the HMO's privatizing Medicare.

As expected the Democrats and AARP are fighting the medicare cuts.  But there is another  group lobbying against the cuts, according the New York Times:

On the other side of the issue, military families have joined doctors and AARP, the advocacy group for older Americans, in lobbying for the bill.

Relatives of active-duty military personnel, military retirees and their dependents receive care under a federal program known as Tricare, which uses the Medicare fee schedule to pay doctors.

When Medicare reduces payments to doctors, fees under the military program are also reduced, and it becomes more difficult for military families to find doctors.

Congress is “playing chicken with your health care,” the Military Officers Association of America told its members in a bulletin last week.

The bill to delay the cuts passed the house easily, but came up one vote short in the Senate.

And guess who could have made that vote, but didnt?

Senate Democrats came within one vote on Thursday night of pushing forward with a bill to prevent a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, which will take effect next month without legislative action. And the only senators missing were John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is ill.

And Mr. McCain’s absence made it likely that Democrats would seek to hold him at least partly responsible for the outcome.

Mr. McCain was campaigning in Ohio on Thursday and attended a fund-raiser in Cincinnati on Thursday night. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee voted in favor of the Medicare legislation. He had been in Washington for a fundraiser earlier in the day.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised anymore after Walter Reed.

The Republicans care more about supporting the HMO's than supporting the troops.

John McCain either cares more about fundraising than he does supporting the troops or he was ducking the vote.

Personally, I think Obama and the Dems should be highlighting this issue a bit more.  

Politically, the Dems are taking the position of seniors and the military while the Republicans are taking the side of the insurance companies.

I don't know why we are not beating them over the head for this.

But we should be.  They deserve it.