Congress readily blocks Bush's veto of Medicare bill

WASHINGTON — Acting with unusual speed, Congress overwhelmingly rejected President Bush's veto Tuesday of a bill averting a Medicare pay cut for doctors.

Within hours of the veto, the House voted 383-41 and the Senate voted 70-26, in both cases far more than the two-thirds necessary to block the president's action and more support Tuesday than when it was first approved.

"Thankfully, we don't have to take no for an answer," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said shortly before the House vote.

Bush has vetoed bills nine times, and Congress has had the muscle to override him only on a water projects bill and twice on farm legislation.

Lawmakers were under pressure from doctors and the elderly patients they serve to void the 10.6 percent rate cut, which kicked in July 1. The cut was based on a formula that establishes lower reimbursement rates when Medicare spending levels exceed established targets.

The president said he supported rescinding the pay cut, but he objected to the way lawmakers would finance the plan, largely by reducing spending on private health plans serving the elderly and disabled. Bush said the cuts to insurers would harm the managed-care program, which his administration sees as giving seniors more choices and eventually leading to lower health costs for the federal government.

"I support the primary objective of this legislation, to forestall reductions in physician payments," Bush said in a statement. "Yet taking choices away from seniors to pay physicians is wrong."

But Democrats said their legislation would prevent doctors from fleeing the traditional treatment practices that are used by more than 80 percent of the mostly elderly Medicare patients. They said the private insurers were receiving too much funding in the Medicare Advantage program.

About 600,000 doctors treat Medicare patients. Many said they would no longer accept new elderly patients if the cuts stood.

Compiled from The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Cox News Service reports