Boehner: ‘Conservatives should be happy’ about Medicare ‘doc fix’

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Friday took a jab at the small group of fiscal conservatives who have fiercely opposed his bipartisan, $200 billion deal to reform Medicare.

“Conservatives should be happy we got this done, and confident Republicans will continue fighting to curb Washington’s worst habits for the sake of our children’s future,” Boehner wrote in an op-ed Friday for the IJ Review.

{mosads}The Medicare “doc fix” bill, which was personally negotiated by Boehner, was passed overwhelmingly passed in the Senate Tuesday night. President Obama signed the bill Thursday, staving off steep cuts to payments for doctors who accept Medicare.

Still, the bill drew sharp criticism from influential Republicans in Congress, including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Florida), who are both competing for the GOP presidential nomination.

They were joined by GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), David Perdue (Ga.), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.) and Richard Shelby (Ala.) in voting against the bill.

Conservative groups including the Heritage Action Foundation and Club for Growth also fiercely opposed the legislation, which they claimed violates the GOP’s promise to reduce the deficit.

To appease fiscal conservatives, Senate leaders allowed Lee to propose an amendment that would force Congress to cover the full costs of the bill. That amendment failed 42-58, garnering the fewest votes out of all six amendments considered that night.

Boehner spent two months quietly working with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to solve a Medicare payment problem that has plagued congressional leaders for more than 20 years.



The stakes were high for Boehner, who tried and failed to secure a deal on the Medicare formula last year.

Boehner has repeatedly stressed that the bill saves money in the long term, arguing in his op-ed that the bill is an “important step” to ultimately reform Medicare.

“We all know that much more must be done to save our entitlement programs, but we have to start somewhere,” he wrote.