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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Deborah Amos. President Bush got a reminder yesterday of the political power of Medicare. The health insurance program for seniors was about to cut the payments it makes to doctors, but Congress has restored the full payments and lawmakers overrode a presidential veto to do it. NPR's Julie Rovner reports.
JULIE ROVNER: If you wanted a demonstration of why the Medicare bill is now law, it was best to look not at the House or the Senate floor yesterday, but rather at a ground-floor hearing room in the Dickerson Senate office building. It was filled with exuberant members of the AARP sporting red t-shirts and chanting for their cause.
(Soundbite of chanting)
ROVNER: Among those addressing the rally was Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts, who voted for the Medicare bill last month when it failed to pass by a single vote. He noted that 3,000 Kansans had written him in favor of the bill.
Senator PAT ROBERTS (Republican, Kansas): And their sisters and their brothers and their cousins and their uncles and their aunts and their dog called me about this issue.
ROVNER: Roberts is up for reelection and he clearly heard the threats of doctors who said that if the 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments were to be implemented for real, they'd have no choice but to stop taking new Medicare patients.
West Virginia Democratic Senator J. Rockefeller said it's already happening.
Senator J. ROCKEFELLER (Democrat, West Virginia): Many people tell me they walk up to doctors' doors and there's already a sign saying no more Medicare patients.
ROVNER: President Bush cited a long list of concerns in his veto message, but clearly his biggest problem was trimming payments to private insurance companies that participate in Medicare. Republicans like Arizona Senator Jon Kyl accused the Democrats of targeting the insurers to force Republicans to choose between two political allies.
Senator JON KYL (Republican, Arizona): None of the Republicans ever opposed providing the physicians their update. What it had to do mostly with was an attempt to undercut the private insurance part of Medicare that many on the other side of the aisle have never liked. And it's one of the signature achievements of the Bush administration and it's no wonder that the president vetoed the bill.
ROVNER: Democrats like Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett didn't deny that they were out to reduce to what budget analysts have said are overpayments to Medicare private insurance plans.
Representative LLOYD DOGGETT (Democrat, Texas): Even Medicare's own actuary reports absolutely zero quantifiable savings have occurred through private Medicare and will never occur through private Medicare as currently set up. A waste of $150 billion bestowed on the insurers. That's the waste that President Bush is so intent on protecting through this veto.
ROVNER: But in the end, the sheer political power of doctors and patients trumped even the power of the insurance industry, and it showcased just how weak the lame duck President Bush has become. Normally, the President picks up votes on a veto override, but yesterday another two dozens Republicans jumped ship and voted with the unanimous House Democrats, producing a lopsided 383-41 total.
In the Senate the story was similar. Again, the number of Republicans deserting the president grew, from nine last month to 18 last week to 21 yesterday.
Unidentified Man: The yays are 70. The nays are 26. Two-thirds of the senators voting, having voted in the affirmative, the bill on reconsideration is passed, the objections of the President of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding.
(Soundbite of gavel)
ROVNER: And with that the bill became a law. But for all the focus on doctor pay and private Medicare plans, the bill actually includes some other key changes. It renews a program that helps more than a million people with low incomes pay their Medicare premiums. It will gradually reduce Medicare co-payments for mental health services. And it will begin the process of getting doctors to file prescriptions electronically rather than on paper, an effort aimed at both saving money and preventing medication errors.
Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.