Thursday, January 06, 2005
Enough is enough
[Robert Pear, "Administration looks to curb growth of Medicaid spending," The New York Times, 20 December 2004.]
State governments have been keeping themselves busy with Commissions and Task Forces on Medicaid, but little progress has actually been achieved. Meanwhile, costs continue to mount and officials at the federal level - where 60 percent of Medicaid funding comes from - are losing patience:
Federal officials are sending auditors to state capitals across the country to investigate techniques used by states to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid costs to the federal government.
Medicaid, originally intended for the poor, has been expanded in some states to cover families with incomes up to twice the poverty level. But the limit on co-payments is still $3 for a prescription drug, regardless of a family's income.
Lawmakers have talked of overhauling Medicaid for a decade, but a confluence of forces has added new urgency to the debate, which will begin in earnest when Congress convenes next month.
Medicaid spending shot up 63 percent in the past five years. With more than 50 million beneficiaries and more than $300 billion a year in combined federal and state outlays, Medicaid is now bigger than Medicare. For prescription drugs alone, Medicaid spending soared to $34 billion in 2003, from $13.6 billion in 1998.
Bush has vowed to cut the federal budget deficit by half in five years, and Republican leaders in Congress say that goal will be virtually impossible without touching Medicaid.
The growth of Medicaid has outstripped the growth of state revenues and is putting pressure on other state programs. This year, for the first time, Medicaid was a larger component of state spending than elementary and secondary education combined, the governors association said.
The release of a new report from The Center for Long Term Care Financing comes at an excellent time. According to "How to Save Medicaid $20 Billion Per Year AND Improve the Program in the Process":
The single most effective step Congress and the President can take to fix Medicaid, reduce its cost, and improve America's long-term care service delivery and financing system is to replace Medicaid's home equity exemption with a reverse mortgage as a pre-condition of eligibility.
That simple measure will pump desperately needed financial oxygen into the LTC service delivery system, relieve the burden of Medicaid on taxpayers, enable Medicaid to provide better access to higher quality care for the genuinely needy, and supercharge the market for LTC insurance and home equity conversion products.
[Matthew Hisrich, "Kansas Needs Bold Medicaid Reform," The Wichita Eagle, 21 January 2004.]
[Robert Pear, "Administration looks to curb growth of Medicaid spending," The New York Times, 20 December 2004.]
State governments have been keeping themselves busy with Commissions and Task Forces on Medicaid, but little progress has actually been achieved. Meanwhile, costs continue to mount and officials at the federal level - where 60 percent of Medicaid funding comes from - are losing patience:
Federal officials are sending auditors to state capitals across the country to investigate techniques used by states to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid costs to the federal government.
Medicaid, originally intended for the poor, has been expanded in some states to cover families with incomes up to twice the poverty level. But the limit on co-payments is still $3 for a prescription drug, regardless of a family's income.
Lawmakers have talked of overhauling Medicaid for a decade, but a confluence of forces has added new urgency to the debate, which will begin in earnest when Congress convenes next month.
Medicaid spending shot up 63 percent in the past five years. With more than 50 million beneficiaries and more than $300 billion a year in combined federal and state outlays, Medicaid is now bigger than Medicare. For prescription drugs alone, Medicaid spending soared to $34 billion in 2003, from $13.6 billion in 1998.
Bush has vowed to cut the federal budget deficit by half in five years, and Republican leaders in Congress say that goal will be virtually impossible without touching Medicaid.
The growth of Medicaid has outstripped the growth of state revenues and is putting pressure on other state programs. This year, for the first time, Medicaid was a larger component of state spending than elementary and secondary education combined, the governors association said.
The release of a new report from The Center for Long Term Care Financing comes at an excellent time. According to "How to Save Medicaid $20 Billion Per Year AND Improve the Program in the Process":
The single most effective step Congress and the President can take to fix Medicaid, reduce its cost, and improve America's long-term care service delivery and financing system is to replace Medicaid's home equity exemption with a reverse mortgage as a pre-condition of eligibility.
That simple measure will pump desperately needed financial oxygen into the LTC service delivery system, relieve the burden of Medicaid on taxpayers, enable Medicaid to provide better access to higher quality care for the genuinely needy, and supercharge the market for LTC insurance and home equity conversion products.
[Matthew Hisrich, "Kansas Needs Bold Medicaid Reform," The Wichita Eagle, 21 January 2004.]
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