|
E-mail this page to a friend!
House Passes Budget Bill with Biggest Cuts in Medicaid,
Medicare
Cuts $99.3 billion over 10 years - 27% from Medicaid,
23% from Medicare.
Feb. 1, 2006 – It's done. The House has passed and
sent to President Bush the budget reconciliation bill that was strongly
opposed by most senior citizen advocacy groups and newspaper editorials
due to the deep cuts it makes in Medicaid and Medicare. It was a very
close vote – 216 to 214. The bill cuts the budget by $38.8 billion over
five years – 50 percent of the cuts are in Medicaid and Medicare.
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Final House Vote on Budget Bill Could Cut Billions
from Senior Programs
Passage expected Wednesday to cut Medicare, Medicaid
Jan. 30, 2006 – The Budget Reconciliation Bill,
which many see as making drastic cuts in government programs for senior
citizens – Medicaid and Medicare, is expected to hit the House floor on
Wednesday for a final vote, the day after the President's State of the
Union address. As reported today by the Capitol Hill Watch at KaiserNet.org, the bill will reduce federal spending by $99.3 billion
over 10 years, with half of that coming from these senior programs. The
Congressional Budget Office analysis says premiums for Medicaid
beneficiaries in the bill could cause 110,000 to lose coverage by 2015.
Read more...
Senate Budget Chair Calls
for More Cuts in Medicare
Republicans to recycle old failed issues in 2006
Jan. 26, 2006 – The Republican chairman of the
Senate Budget Committee is calling for more cuts in health care programs
in fiscal 2007, which includes Medicare, according to The Daily Health Policy Report by KaiserNetwork.org, which cites CQ Today. The
daily news summary says Republicans will also be targeting health care
proposals this year, but most are proposals that have failed in the
past. Read more...
•
Homecare Industry Rallying Support to Kill
Reconciliation Act
•
Television Campaign to Stop Health Care Cuts for
Seniors Launched by AFSCME
•
Vote on Budget Set for Feb. 1; Senior Groups Seek to
Sway GOP Moderates |
|
The House first passed the bill on Dec. 19, 2005,
by a vote of 212-206. It went to the Senate, where it passed by only one
vote – 51-50. Due to procedural changes in the Senate, it had to go back
to the House for this final vote. There was intensive lobbying by the
senior citizen advocates and others since the Senate vote on Dec. 21,
2005, but they came only four votes closer.
The final vote was mostly along party lines, with
Republicans supporting the bill and Democrats in opposition.
AARP CEO, Bill Novelli, quickly issued the
following statement:
"Last night, in his State of the Union Address, the
President said, "Keeping America competitive requires affordable health
care. Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care
for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility."
"Today the U.S. House of Representatives has turned
a cold shoulder to that responsibility by further limiting eligibility
for Medicaid, a program that serves the neediest -- the disabled,
children, the poor and the elderly. It also approved a provision in its
budget that will deny long-term care coverage to those who give money to
charities, churches and family members in need.
"Working with our members, AARP will continue the
fight to have this ill-conceived policy reversed."
The bill would save $99.3 billion over 10 years,
with half of that coming from Medicaid and Medicare - 27% from Medicaid
and 23% from Medicare.
There's also $1 billion in new spending to extend
an income subsidy program for dairy farmers and a reprieve for
physicians who had faced a 4 percent cut in Medicare fees, according to
the Associated Press.
A major boost to opponents was an estimate issued
by the Congressional Budget Office estimating that 45,000 Medicaid
beneficiaries would lose their coverage in FY 2010 because of higher
premiums in the bill. The CBO report also estimated 65,000 beneficiaries
would lose coverage in FY 2015.
Children would account for 60% of the Medicaid
beneficiaries who would lose coverage, according to the report.
The report also estimates that 13 million Medicaid
beneficiaries would have new or higher copayments for services such as
physician visits and hospital care. In addition, 13 million Medicaid
beneficiaries would pay more for prescription drugs by 2010, and 20
million would pay more by 2015, the report states.
According to the report, "About 80% of the savings
from higher cost-sharing would be due to decreased use of services." The
report estimates that 1.3 million Medicaid beneficiaries would have to
pay premiums and that 1.6 million would lose benefits, most likely for
dental, vision and mental health services.
In addition, the report
estimates that 15% of Medicaid long-term care beneficiaries would have
their coverage delayed because of additional restrictions on asset
transfers.
The asset transfer provisions in the bill would impose punitive new restrictions on the ability of the
elderly to transfer assets before qualifying for Medicaid coverage of
nursing home care. (Click
here to read these provisions.)
Click here to Search SeniorJournal.com for more on
this subject
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
