Monday, January 24, 2005
States to be forced to "find ways to save money" on Medicaid
[Alan Fram, "Bush budget proposal will likely target Medicaid, other benefits," Associated Press, The Lawrence Journal-World, 22 January 2005.]
Signs and signals continue to emanate from Washington that the rules of the Medicaid game are about to change. State policymakers need to be preparing now so that they will be ready:
President Bush is readying a new budget that would carve savings from Medicaid and other benefit programs, congressional aides and lobbyists say, but it is unclear if he will be able to push the plan through the Republican-run Congress.
White House officials are not saying what Bush's $2.5 trillion 2006 budget will propose saving from such programs, which comprise the biggest and fastest-growing part.
But lobbyists and lawmakers' aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he would focus on Medicaid, the health-care program for low-income and disabled people. Medicaid costs are split between Washington and the states.
Many expect him to propose giving states more flexibility in using the $180 billion in federal Medicaid funds each year, but to limit the program's growth on a per-patient basis -- in effect forcing the states to find ways to save money.
Conservatives may want to go even further than whatever savings Bush proposes. Many of them consider Bush's goal of halving the budget deficit by 2009 too timid, and see the coming retirement of the 76 million baby boomers as threatening to snowball federal spending.
[Matthew Hisrich, "Revamp Medicaid," Letter to the Editor, The Hutchinson News, 8 January 2005.]
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