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Katrina Affecting Medicaid, Medicare and Social
Security Legislation
By
ElderLawAnswers.com
 Sept.
16, 2005 - Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), says that $10
billion in cuts to Medicaid requested by the Bush administration will
have to be weighed against the need to provide health care to victims of
Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of people have lost health insurance
through their employer, so the demand on Medicaid may grow, according to
an article in the
Palm Beach Post.
In May, the House and Senate passed a
budget resolution to reduce Medicaid spending by $10 billion over
five years. Frist said that Congress should still look at reducing
Medicaid costs by considering changes that would eliminate waste, fraud,
and abuse, but not by cutting back on care.
While cuts to Medicaid may not be made, the costs
associated with Hurricane Katrina are having the opposite effect on
efforts to reverse a scheduled 4.3 percent reduction in Medicare
physician payments.
According to the
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, several Senate staffers have
questioned whether Congress will be willing or able to reverse the
payment reduction because reversing the pay reduction would cost between
$153 billion and $183 billion over 10 years. However, many doctors have
said they will no longer treat Medicare recipients if the cuts go
through.
Hurricane Katrina is also having an effect on
proposed reforms to Social Security. According to an article in the
Washington Post, Republican Congressional Committee Chairman, Thomas
Reynolds (R-N.Y.), will recommend that the party drop efforts to
restructure Social Security. He told a group of Republicans that now
that Congress had Hurricane Katrina legislation to deal with, it would
be difficult to mount an effective public relations campaign to
restructure Social Security.
Meanwhile, the Senate is moving to provide Medicaid
coverage to survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Senate Finance Committee
Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) have
introduced a bill to temporarily extend Medicaid coverage to displaced
residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, and parts of Alabama.
According to
the
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, the bill would require the
federal government to pay 100 percent of Medicaid costs for five months,
with an option to extend coverage for an additional five months. In
addition, the federal government would pay through 2006 100 percent of
the costs for Medicaid beneficiaries in the affected states. Other
provisions in the bill would eliminate asset tests, establish a fund to
help survivors with private health insurance bills, and eliminate
penalties for missed application deadlines for survivors.
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