In the aftermath of Congress’ failure to reach a deal averting the sequester, President Obama described the automatic spending cuts as foolhardy, warning, “The pain will be real. The longer these cuts are in place, the greater the damage.” Those words are now coming to fruition, as local cancer clinics all across America are being forced to turn away thousands of senior citizens on Medicare and deny them their chemotherapy treatments as a consequence of federal budget cuts.

The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff reports that even the sequester’s relatively mild two percent cut to Medicare is forcing clinics to choose between providing care to patients, absorbing debilitating financial losses, or downsizing medical staff. Faced with those unsavory choices, clinics like North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York are refusing to see as many as 5,000 of their Medicare patients:

Medications for seniors are usually covered under the optional Medicare Part D, which includes private insurance. But because cancer drugs must be administered by a physician, they are among a handful of pharmaceuticals paid for by Part B, which covers doctor visits and is subject to the sequester cut.

The federal government typically pays community oncologists for the average sales price of a chemotherapy drug, plus 6 percent to cover the cost of storing and administering the medication.

Since oncologists cannot change the drug prices, they argue that the entire 2 percent cut will have to come out of that 6 percent overhead. That would make it more akin to a double-digit pay cut.

“If you get cut on the service side, you can either absorb it or make do with fewer nurses,” said Ted Okon, director of the Community Oncology Alliance, which advocates for hundreds of cancer clinics nationwide. “This is a drug that we’re purchasing. The costs don’t change and you can’t do without it. There isn’t really wiggle room.” […]

An analysis prepared by [the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders director Ralph Boccia’s] clinic estimates that, if the full 2 percent cut takes effect, between 50 and 70 percent of the drugs it administers would become money losers.

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