VIDEO: Election results, physicians retiring from Congress may impact health care reform
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Key takeaways:
- New leadership in the White House, if it occurs, could impact important issues for nephrologists, including physician payment reform.
- Several physicians who are members of Congress are retiring.
While health care issues on Capitol Hill are gaining some attention, momentum could change if the White House or Congress are under new political leadership after the November elections, according to Robert Blaser.
Likewise, the number of retirements among members of Congress who are physicians “is an usually high amount, and that might make for some strange bedfellows in terms of moving legislation, including health policy legislation affecting nephrology,” Blaser, the director of public policy for the Renal Physicians Association, told Healio.
A number of these retirements will take place this year, Blaser said, but these legislators might want to make physician payment reform – one of the top priorities for groups like the AMA and the RPA – a “legacy issue for themselves. They may want to see if they can make that happen,” he said.
One key retirement is U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “She is in a position to make [legislation] happen,” Blaser said.
“It will be an interesting year in Washington in the second half of 2024,” he said.
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