Congress easily overrides Medicare veto

After President Bush sought to block a bill aimed at forestalling an 11% cut in payments to doctors taking care of Medicare patients, Congress quickly overrode his veto. The House voted 383 to 41 for the override, while the Senate voted 70 to 26. Both cases were far more than the two-thirds necessary to block the veto. At issue in this bill was how the government should respond to a planned reduction in Medicare doctors’ fees, mandated by a formula that requires the cuts if certain spending targets are not reached. Under the formula, a 10.6% cut in fees for doctors was supposed to go into effect, but Congress voted instead to reduce the reimbursement to insurance companies that serve Medicare beneficiaries under its managed-care program.