Wyden wants timber bill, Medicare reform by end of year

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has an ambitious list of goals to accomplish before the end of session.

The Portland Democrat wants to change how the country fights wildfires, increase logging in Oregon, and revise Medicare's fee for service system.

With multiple outlets predicting a Republican-controlled Senate in 2015, the pressure is on for the newly minted chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Logging

Oregon's timber counties have struggled to pay their bills for two decades since federal protections curtailed logging on federal forest lands.

That struggle has intensified in recent years as the flood of federal payments providing a safety net for affected counties slowed to a trickle.

Wyden introduced a bill in November 2013 to increase logging on the so-called O&C Lands while preserving nearly 1 million acres, but it hasn't made it to a vote.

"We are going to get it done this year," Wyden said. "Rural communities are really suffering. We have got to get people back to work in the woods."

Firefighting

The federal government pays to fight wildfires by taking money marked for wildfire prevention.

This troubles Wyden because it means "the critical thinning work gets neglected."

He's proposing a bill, along with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, that would require the government to pay for the largest fires with disaster funds — leaving the prevention funds intact.

Wyden said the bill is budget neutral because more prevention work means less large scale burns.

Medicare Costs

Wyden wants to change how doctors are paid by Medicare in the long term, but in the short term he's hoping to end "the doc fix."

It's a bill Congress passes intermittently to prevent a sharp drop in Medicare payments to doctors.

Congress created the Sustainable Growth Rate system in 1997, which tied the rise in Medicare payments to the growth of the economy.

That sounded like a good idea, but heath-care costs have far outpaced economic growth and created a shortfall that Congress now fills.

Wyden want to permanently repeal that system and replace it with more realistic payments.

In the long-term, Wyden wants to pass a voluntary "Better Care Program" would pay doctors a flat rate with rewards for better health outcomes rather than the current fee for service system.

The idea is to create an incentive to provide better care at a lower cost.

"The biggest challenge with respect to healthcare — and in my view the budget — is Medicare," Wyden said.