The Senate is poised to vote on a Medicare "doc fix" that will avoid a 21 percent cut in reimbursement rates for doctors that see patients covered by Medicare.
Some congressmen have opposed the bill because it costs too much in their minds, but for senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX) the problem is the bill does not destroy Medicare.
The senator said he opposes the House-passed Medicare reform package because it “institutionalizes and expands ObamaCare policies” while adding billions to the deficit.
“Any deal should be fully paid for and include significant and structural reforms to Medicare,” Cruz wrote in a statement, released just a few hours before the Senate is expected to take up the legislation.
Significant and structural reforms to Medicare? What could that mean?
Actually, it's no mystery. The Senate Republican budget, just like its House counterpart, would convert Medicare into a "premium support system" whereby you would receive a coupon in the mail to help you buy private insurance.
We already know Ted Cruz supports destroying Medicare as we know it today, but his opposition to the "doc fix" is significant for another reason.
Medicare as we know it is now being directly associated with Obamacare even though it was established or "institutionalized" nearly 50 years ago. It appears that anything that represents the current status quo is now tied to Obamacare.
Cruz's Republican opponents may attack him for opposing the legislation, but each of them also support tearing the entire system down.
I firmly believe this will bite the Republican party in the ass more than any of their other policies.