Financing for the bill's reforms will come from sources including: an increased Medicare payroll tax for those individuals making over $200,000 a year or joint returns reflecting $250,000 a year; a new five percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery procedures; a reduction in the Medicaid and Medicare payments to disproportionate share hospitals (those that serve a large number of low-income patients); and an imposition of an annual fee on medical device manufacturers and importers and health insurance providers.

Other significant provisions of the Act include increasing payment rates for physicians' services for 2010 relative to those in effect for 2009, and then those rates would be reduced by about 23 percent for 2011 and then remain at current-law levels. The Act would also establish an Independent Medicare Advisory Board which would be occasionally required to recommend changes to the Medicare program limiting the rate of growth in spending. The utilization rate assumption for advanced imaging equipment would still be increased from 50 percent to 65 percent for 2010 through 2013, then further increased to 75 percent beginning in 2014. The technical component payment reduction for sequential imaging services on contiguous body parts during the same visit would increase from 25 percent to 50 percent.


President Obama had the following comments on the bill:

"Today we passed another critical milestone in the health reform effort with the release of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. I was particularly pleased to see that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill will reduce the deficit by $127 billion over the next ten years and as much as $650 billion in the decade following, saving hundreds of billions while extending coverage to 31 million more Americans.

The challenges facing our health care system aren't new - but if we fail to act they'll surely get even worse, meaning higher premiums, skyrocketing costs, and deeper instability for those with coverage. Today, thanks to the Senate's hard work, we're closer than ever to enacting solutions to these problems. I look forward to working with the Senate and House to get a finished bill to my desk as soon as possible."

The full text of the bill: http://democrats.senate.gov/

The CBO's analysis: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10731/Reid_letter_11_18_09.pdf

President Obama's remarks: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-obama-patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act

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