A $200 billion plan to permanently end an annual cut to Medicare reimbursements could be headed for the president’s desk at the end of the week now that Senate Democrats are softening their objections to abortion language in the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has dropped his earlier opposition to the “doc fix” proposal; and while he won’t fully endorse the plan yet, he is no longer opposed to language in the bill that prevents federal funds from being used to pay for abortions.
Reid said last week that he believed language in the bill would have expanded restrictions on federal funding for abortions.
Reid had associated the Medicare abortion language to a provision in a now-stalled human trafficking bill that Democrats believe constitutes an expansion of the long-standing federal law prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for abortions.
Abortion-rights groups have put pressure on both House and Senate Democrats to get the language stripped from both bills.
But Reid said he met Tuesday with “senators and people from downtown,” and no longer objects to the abortion language in the Medicare legislation.
“The two provisions in the two bills are different,” Reid told reporters.
Reid may have little choice but to back the House “doc fix” proposal this week.
The House is slated to pass the legislation on Thursday and both chambers are scheduled to leave as early as Thursday night for a two-week recess.
Meanwhile, a temporary patch preventing a 20 percent drop in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors is set to expire March 31.
With bipartisan passage all but guaranteed in the House, Reid will be under pressure to allow the bill to clear the Senate before it adjourns for a recess in order to avert the threat of an end-of-the-month Medicare payment drop. Such a drop in reimbursements could make it harder for senior citizens to obtain medical care from their doctors.
According to GOP leadership aides, a vote on the Medicare measure could happen late Thursday if Democrats don’t object.
For now, Reid isn’t saying whether he’ll try to block it.
The bill represents a rare bipartisan agreement between House Republicans and Democrats, who are eager to finally end automatic cuts to reimbursement rates that must be patched every year.
The bill includes a two-year extension of CHIP, the federal health insurance program for low-income children, and it is paid for in part by requiring upper-income earners to pay more for Medicare services.
Reid and other Senate Democrats say they want a four-year CHIP extension but they are no longer calling the House plan a nonstarter.
“I personally am going to wait until I see it pass the House instead of speculating on what we need to do here,” Reid said Tuesday.
Democrats appear unwilling to budge on their opposition to the abortion language in the human trafficking bill, however.
They object to a provision that prohibits $30 million in restitution money from being used for abortions, saying the bans should not apply because the funds are provided by fines and fees and not directly from taxpayers.
Republicans say both parties are working on a way to move forward with the bill in mid-April, when Congress returns from the recess.
Until the trafficking bill passes, Republicans have postponed a confirmation vote on attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch.
“I know there are people on both sides of the aisle who are trying to figure out how to get past the impasse,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday. “And I hope they can do that and I wish them well.”
