As the clock ticks on a July 1 deadline for cutting Medicare payments to physicians by 10 percent, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., says he’s crafting a solution to block the cuts and beef up payments to primary-care doctors.

“I’m working on a Medicare package that would prevent physician-payment cuts while ensuring access to primary-care services,” he said last week.

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for the elderly and the disabled, covering 43 million people nationwide, including 135,000 in Montana.

Baucus is chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which he says will draft proposed changes to the Medicare budget this spring.

Baucus said this month that Montanans and Americans “have a God-given right to affordable health care,” and that the Medicare changes he’s supporting will work toward that goal.

The bill would block scheduled across-the-board 10 percent cut in physician payments and should include higher payments to “primary care” physicians for office visits, Senate Finance Committee staffers said.

Primary-care doctors are family-practice physicians and internists, who are the general practitioners of the medical profession. Much of their time is spent visiting with patients, analyzing their medical problems and recommending care.

Health-care officials say a shortage of primary-care doctors is looming in America, in large part because these types of physicians are usually paid less than specialists.

Primary-care doctors say Medicare and private insurers don’t fully compensate them for their time spent taking care of patients, making it more difficult for them to pay off medical-school debts and make a living.

Yet if Baucus wants to increase Medicare payments to primary-care doctors, current law requires that other savings within the Medicare budget must be found.

Baucus staffers said they’re looking for places where they can take money away from areas deemed as “overpayments” within Medicare. Possible areas are the Medicare Advantage program, which sends money to private insurers providing extra health insurance intertwined with Medicare coverage, they say.

U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican and Montana’s only congressman, also said the proposed Medicare cuts are “unacceptable.” Yet he also said Congress needs to find a long-term solution that doesn’t harm other Medicare programs that Montanans rely on.

“It seems like every year we fight these cuts and every year we end up putting a Band-aid on the problem instead of fixing it,” he said last week.

While Baucus has been a key player in constructing Medicare budgets and rules of the past, he’s saying now they should be recast to ensure that people in rural areas have the same access to health care as do others, including primary care.

“Medicare is a success story,” he said in February in a speech to the national board of AARP, the consumer lobby for those over 50. “We must protect that success. And let us build on that success.”