Medicare

Murray's Work

Senator Murray is working hard to address the health care challenges that are impacting our state, including problems related to Medicare. By providing hospital and medical insurance, as well as prescription drug coverage to millions of Americans, Medicare is an essential part of America’s health care system. Many seniors rely on it as their only source of health care.

Medicare Reimbursement Rates

Medicare reimbursement rates currently penalize patients and providers in Washington state. The reimbursement system is based on an outdated scale generated from cost of living, patient utilization, and health care costs among states. Washington state has a tradition of efficient healthcare and healthy seniors, therefore health care costs are much lower in Washington than in other states. As a result, doctors and providers are reimbursed at a dramatically lower rate than other states. This has led to the loss of many Medicare providers to those states with higher reimbursement rates.

Physician payment reimbursements generally continue to be a big issue affecting doctors and patients in Washington state. Medicare law specifies a formula for calculating the annual payment for physician’s services and every year this formula receives an update. Beginning in 2002, these updates actually resulted in payment cuts. Already penalized by the formula for the reasons listed above, physician payment cuts hit Washington state doctors particularly hard. Senator Murray has been a leader in ensuring that these payment cuts do not go into effect. Without a change to the way physicians are paid, physicians and Medicare beneficiaries across the country will continue to be adversely impacted. Senator Murray is committed to finding a permanent solution to the reimbursement dilemma.

Prescription Drugs

Senator Murray also knows the cost of prescription drugs hit seniors particularly hard. During her time in the Senate, she has been a strong and outspoken supporter of Medicare and the need to add a prescription drug benefit. However, the current Medicare Part D drug benefit is a solution that often hurts as much as it helps. After traveling throughout the state and listening to concerns of Washington residents, Senator Murray knows that the Part D benefit is extremely confusing to seniors and has caused tremendous administrative burdens for nursing homes, doctors, pharmacists, and hospitals. The long lists of confusing plans and multiple formularies, as well as the “donut hole” coverage gap, have caused undue stress for Washington seniors.

To help make prescription drug prices under Medicare less expensive, Senator Murray is a strong supporter of legislation that would allow the federal government from negotiating lower drug prices, something that is currently prohibited by law. Allowing the government to negotiate drug prices could potentially result in lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. By using the market power of over 43 million Medicare beneficiaries, the federal government could secure deep discounts in prescription drug prices for America’s seniors.