I am sick of Congress playing politics with patients. This is not and should not be a partisan political issue. As physicians, we are members of the "party of medicine." We are here to take care of one special interest — our patients.

The Senate voted against a bill that would:

Ensure that elderly patients, the disabled and military personnel had a physician to care for them when they are sick.

Stop the Medicare program from slashing all physician payments by more than 10 percent.

Stop the Medicare program from slashing physician payments by more than 12 percent who work in rural Texas and along the border. It's unbelievable that Congress thinks rural patients should be penalized further.

Give Congress 18 months to fix the flawed funding formula, which is the reason physicians face cuts from Medicare each year.

Why did they make this decision? Because the Bush administration said it would veto any bill that made cuts to Medicare Advantage plans.

Medicare Advantage plans do no more than arrange for care or broker services that already exist for Medicare patients. Only 20 percent of the Medicare population gets health care coverage from Medicare Advantage. However, the government pays them double-digit, multimillion-dollar bonuses for this service.

Our senators chose to support the Bush administration and health plans profits. But the bill did not call for drastic cuts to Medicare Advantage plans. Instead the bill:

Eliminated a duplicate payment the government already makes to teaching hospitals.

Would reform certain Medicare Advantage plans, whose marketing abuses are well-documented and which serve fewer than 4 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries. These reforms would not cut payments to those plans.

What is ironic is that Medicare Advantage plans do not provide medical care. Physicians do. Meanwhile, physicians — the people who take care of Medicare patients — are seeing payments for services cut by 10 percent to 12 percent.

Instead of Congress fixing those cuts, the Senate let the bill fail by one vote. One senator's vote could have made a big difference for Medicare patients.

Now what happens? With the huge payment cut, many of my colleagues and I have no choice but to quit accepting new Medicare patients. I went to medical school to take care of the sick, and I don't want to be forced out of Medicare.

Join with your doctors. Call your members of Congress and tell them that they were elected by Texans to take care of Texans — not big health insurance companies.

It's time that our senators take a stand and do the right thing for Texas patients. They must pass a bill that stops these cuts and ensures that Medicare patients have access to quality health care.