Medicare

CBO: ‘Doc fix’ costs rise to $25 billion

by Sam Baker - 11/20/12 8:18 PM ET

{mosads}Because the “doc fix” is now wrapped up with the end-of-year “fiscal cliff,” there’s a chance Congress might stop short of fixing it for a full year, postponing the Medicare cut — along with other parts of the fiscal cliff, the $600 billion of tax increases and spending cuts set to hit in January — until March, and trying to work out a longer solution then.

House Republican doctors are pushing for a full year, and say they’re confident they’ll get one.

A two-year doc fix would cost $41.5 billion, CBO said, while freezing doctors’ payments for 10 years would cost nearly $244 billion.

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