This morning The Hill published a report on the H.R. 3519 legislation filed earlier this week that would exempt the entire Medicare program from sequestration. The Democrats who filed the legislation claim that this exemption falls under the Budget Control Act.
Interestingly, the Budget Control Act makes it clear that reductions in Medicare payments to providers are capped at 2 percent. This is much smaller, both in percentage and amount, than cuts faced by other departments.
Given the recent failure of the SuperCommittee, someone is going to have to given and cuts are going to have to be made. Despite introducing H.R. 3519 to stop sequestration of Medicare, those who filed the legislation did not propose where the additional funding should now come from.
