Back in the late 90's Congress initiated a series of cuts to Medicare...  those cuts are ongoing and will become a huge problem come January 2010.  If the cuts are made, Doctors will be facing a 21% cut in reimbursement rates.  This would mean that a LOT of doctors would simply stop accepting Medicare all together.

Check out NPR's story: http://npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113950331

Congress Wrestles With Yearly Medicare Fee Cuts

A scheduled 20 percent cut may force many doctors to stop seeing Medicare patients.

___________________________________________________

This "fix" is independant of the current Health Care talks and would be an added expense not offset by other spending cuts, etc... as the above NPR story points out.

___________________________________________________

Now we see this story coming from the WSJ:

By GREG HITT and JANET ADAMY

WASHINGTON -- The idea of creating a government-run health-insurance plan, once on life support in the Senate, is making a recovery among Democrats writing health-care legislation.

So far, no one is talking about a nationwide Medicare-like plan of the sort sought by many liberals, but several variations short of a national plan are being considered.

One would establish a national plan only if other proposals in the Democrat-led health overhaul fail to expand insurance coverage. Another would create a government plan, but allow states to opt out. Still another would allow states to opt in to a government plan, or experiment with their own plans. Prospects are growing that one of these variations -- or a blend of them -- will make it into the final Senate bill.

"This issue is alive, and we're looking at it," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125599567408695255.html
_____________________________

Don't be surprised to find the AMA supporting the Public Option as soon as this "Fix" is in.