Although the last-minute deal reached to avoid the “fiscal cliff” puts off a majority of decisions regarding spending cuts until March 1st, some cuts related to healthcare policy have already been made. The most substantial hit came to funding for Consumer Oriented and Operated Plans (CO-OPs), which were intended to create start-up nonprofit health insurance plans that would compete with traditional insurance plans. Prior to the fiscal cliff deal, Health and Human Services had already loaned $1.9 billion of an allocated $3.8 billion to 24 non-profits in 24 different states. However, the new deal eliminates all but 10 percent of the remaining $1.9 billion, designating those funds to administering the plans already in place. Further, even though the deal extended the Medicare “doc-fix,” the funding needed to keep physicians’ salaries stable for another year came, in part, from cutting Medicare reimbursements to hospitals by $15 billion. Stay tuned to see how the additional spending cuts to come may impact healthcare and federal programs supporting healthcare improvements.
