“In the past two years, (lawmakers) keep coming up to the deadline—or a little past it—and waiving the cuts for shorter and shorter periods of time, which makes us uneasy. … The current uncertainty about what the fee schedule will be, and whether at some point there will be a 20% cut, makes it harder to accept new Medicare patients. … I like to take care of older adults, but I have rent to pay, and a staff to pay.”
—Susan Crittenden, a primary-care physician practicing near Raleigh, N.C., who is taking very few new Medicare patients, on the sustainable-growth-rate formula for Medicare payment to physicians.
“They should have used Medicare dollars to fix this. It's irresponsible” that the healthcare law left such a major issue unresolved. “I think we should have put a crowbar in our wallets and still come up with the money for the uninsured. But in trying to meet a range of goals—having the bill not be more than $1 trillion and having it be budget-neutral—they dumped this issue.”
—Former Medicare trustee Marilyn Moon, who now directs the healthcare program at the American Institutes for Research, on the sustainable-growth-rate formula.