Medicare is going broke, but this week we have a chance to start fixing it. And we can do it — with bipartisan support — by repealing a clumsy payment system that has threatened seniors’ access to care and vexed Congress for nearly two decades.

Here’s the problem: In 1997, Congress tried to put a lid on Medicare’s costs by capping doctor payments with a formula called the “sustainable growth rate.” Under the law, if Medicare spent more than the cap in one year, it would have to compensate by cutting doctor payments in the next.