June 27, 2008

Doctors PAC Recalls Cornyn Endorsement
in Fallout from Vote on Medicare Measure

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

They may not walk on water - but doctors know how to stir up a political storm when lawmakers vote against them.

TEXPAC - the Texas Medical Association's political action committee - has cancelled the endorsement that U.S. Senator John Cornyn had received from the group in light of his vote Thursday to block legislation that would have averted a cut in Medicare reimbursements for physicians.

The state's largest physicians association is equally as perturbed with U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for voting with Cornyn and 58 other colleagues who put up a roadblock to the Medicare measure in a procedural move. But Hutchison isn't up for re-election this year like Cornyn, who received a scathing letter from TEXPAC on Friday about the decision to rescind its support for his bid for a new six-year term in the November election.

TEXPAC "is outraged that you made the decision to follow the direction of the Bush Administration and voted to protect health insurance companies at the expense of America’s seniors, those with disabilities, and military families," Manuel Acosta, the TMA PAC's board chairman, said in the letter to Cornyn.

Acosta said that Texas doctors who treat Medicare patients will face a financial crisis if they don't cut off them off if Congress fails to stop an 11 percent slash in government payments that's scheduled to take effect early next week. "There is talk and then there is action," Acosta told Cornyn. "We expect our elected officials to show leadership and do the right thing."

The Medicare bill fell one vote short of the 60 that were needed in the U.S. Senate to advance the measure. Despite the threat of a veto, the bill cleared the U.S. House last week with stronger support than expected. The majority of the legislation's supporters have been Democrats.

TMA President Josie R. Williams said Cornyn and Hutchison both had promised to fight to keep the Medicare cut for physicians from going into effect on July 1. But Williams said the two Texas senators had voted twice in the past week against measures that would have prevented it - and he urged the organization's members to turn up the heat by contacting Cornyn and Hutchison and urging them to take action to back up their promises before it's too late.

TEXPAC stopped short of endorsing Cornyn's opponent when it rescinded its support for his re-election campaign. Rick Noriega, a state representative from Houston, is challenging Cornyn as the Democratic nominee in the U.S. Senate race this fall.

The Texas doctors organization turned against Governor Rick Perry after he vetoed a prompt payment bill that HMOs had opposed in 2001. TEXPAC endorsed Democrat Tony Sanchez in the governor's race in 2002. But the doctors and Perry buried the hatchet after his commanding victory at the polls that year.

Hutchison, who's been pondering a possible race for governor herself in 2010, will have time to try to get back in good standing with TMA before making a decision on her future political plans. But the vote on the Medicare bill could come back to haunt her in possible races against candidates who've been on the doctors' good side.