SFMS Letter to Representative Pelosi on SGR January 27, 2012 Advocacy, Medicare, Payment, SFMS Member Medicare SGR, SGR, sustainable growth rate 0 SFMS sent a letter to Representative Pelosi on January 13 to urge her to advocate for the repeal of SGR. Click here to view the SGR letter to Representative Polesi. Dear Congresswoman Pelosi: On behalf of the San Francisco Medical Society and its over 1,000 members, I want to thank you for your steadfast support over the years for a permanent fix to the Medicare SGR problem. We know you are aware that the longer we postpone a permanent fix for the SGRs the more expensive the correction becomes. We now urge you to reaffirm this commitment when the House meets this month to work out a budget deal. With each short-term patch, the scheduled cuts get steeper and the cost of payment reform grows. In 2005, the formula could have been repealed for less than $50 billion over ten years. Today, the ten year cost is nearly $300 billion. In five years, the combined cost of short‐term patches and accumulated SGR debt will reach $600 billion. It is irrational to invest more taxpayer money to support a policy that is a proven failure. A two-year patch will cost $39 billion and increase the cost of future efforts to repeal the SGR by an additional $56 billion and increase the projected cut in 2014 to 36%. Furthermore, if allowed to continue, the SGR will require rapidly escalating amounts of politically challenging “pay‐fors” in the future to prevent additional cuts. On behalf of San Francisco physicians and their Medicare patients, we appreciate your steadfast work in finding a permanent solution to this problem. Comments are closed.
