The Not-So-SUPER Super Committee
The Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reductions, aka the Super Committee, failed to meet its congressional obligation to vote on a plan for a $1.2 trillion in budget cuts during the last weeks of November. As you may remember, the U.S. Congress signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 into law this past summer creating the bipartisan 12 member Committee. The Super Committee had been charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reductions by the end of the year. Their failure to achieve a consensus triggers a series of automatic budget cuts in the amount of 1.2 trillion dollars which will go into effect in 2013.
A recent analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities finds—contrary to popular opinion and congressional outcry—cuts to nondefense discretionary spending will actually be greater than those to defense under the sequester. “Between 2011 and 2012, non-defense discretionary funding will shrink by 17.1 percent, after adjusting for inflation, while funding for defense will decline by 15.1 percent. As a share of the economy, non-defense funding will shrink by 1.22 percent of GDP over this period, while defense will decline by 1.17 percent of GDP.”
Additionally, the National Journal reported that, “while Medicare cuts are limited to 2 percent, nondefense discretionary cuts will hit the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and a myriad of other federal health programs.”
ANA remains concerned about the future of safety-net programs, as well as other programs, and the impact of potential cuts on nurses and patients. Please click here for a detailed list of ANA’s requests to the Super Committee. Additionally, ANA and AHA submitted a letter to the Super Committee detailing our concerns that the Super Committee’s plan could have on the health care job market. We will continue to monitor further deficit negotiations to keep you informed as the process moves forward.
SGR “Doc Fix” Receives a Congressional Band-Aid
As Congressional Members were trying to leave DC for the winter recess, political wrangling was front and center and Medicare’s payments to providers was caught in the power struggle. The extension for the payroll tax holiday was the “vehicle”, or bill, used to stop the 27.4 percent Medicare provider payment cut that was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2012.
However, due to disagreements over financial offsets and other policy issues unrelated to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), the House legislation that would extend the payroll holiday and “doc fix” for a year could not attract enough support to pass in the Senate. On December 17, the Senate voted 89-10 to pass an amended version of the bill that would extend all the expiring policies, including current Medicare provider payment rates, for two months. The overwhelming Senate support for the short-term fix was to avoid disruptions on January 1, 2012, and provide time for further negotiations on financing longer-term extensions.
After first voting down the Senate 2-month extension in favor for the year long extension the House had already passed; on December 22, the House succumbed to political pressure and approved the short-term delay in the SGR. The short-term fix was signed into law by President Obama on December 23, 2011.
Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, (D-PA), a House Budget Committee senior member, is on the conference committee seeking a solution to stave off a 27 percent cut to Medicare provider payments in March 2012. According to the National Journal, “she has vowed to use her position on the negotiating panel to push for a permanent repeal of the so-called ‘doc fix.’”
April Canter
Tags: Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, Doc Fix, January 2012, SGR (Sustainable Growth Rate), Super Committee, The Budget Control Act of 2011
