House passes plan to stop Medicare cuts to doctors

The House has approved a six-month plan to prevent a steep cut in doctors' fees paid by Medicare, agreeing to a short-term solution that Speaker Nancy Pelosi called "totally inadequate" but said the House had decided to adopt after concluding that the Senate was hopelessly gridlocked and could do no better. The $6.4 billion measure reverses a 21% cut in physician payments that had raised the possibility that some doctors might begin to turn away those covered by Medicare. The measure is retroactive to June 1, the New York Times reports.