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Report of Massive Deficit in Bush Budget Sets Off
New Alarms for Medicare
Senate, House budget leaders say they are ready to
cut entitlements more
March 6, 2006 – An analysis by the Congressional
Budget Office says the 2007 budget proposed by President Bush will
increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and $1.2 trillion
over ten years. This has raised new alarm that entitlement programs,
like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, may be in for additional
reductions by the Congress – in particular the House - as they consider
the budget. The CBO reports shows the Bush proposal already includes
five year reductions for Medicare of $37 billion and all entitlement
programs by $56 billion, according to KaiserNet.org.
Capitol Hill Watch | Bush FY 2007 Budget Proposal
Would Raise Federal Deficit by $35B, CBO Estimates
 The fiscal year 2007 budget that President Bush has
proposed
would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year, with
proposed spending reductions for Medicare, Medicaid and other programs
expected to offset about one-third of the cost of his other proposals,
according to a
Congressional
Budget Office report released on Friday, the
New York Times reports (Andrews,
New York Times, 3/4).
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Defense of Medicare Budget Cuts Takes Spotlight in
Washington
Administration officials faced angry Congressmen from both parties
Feb.8, 2006 – Today President Bush defended his
proposed $36 billion reduction for Medicare spending in his budget
proposal for FY 2007 and prepared to sign legislation already passed
that cuts another $39 billion from Medicare and Medicaid. Yesterday,
members of his administration were busy defending the $2.77 trillion
budget and the Medicare cuts.
Read more...
Medicare Budget Cuts May Not be Welcomed in Congress
KaiserNet.org provides more detail on specific
proposals, reactions
Feb. 7, 2006 – Although the President's budget for
2007 that was released yesterday has cuts of $36 billion for Medicare
($105 billion over 10 years), reportedly the biggest in the budget, many
are predicting it will be a hard sell to Congress...
Read more...
Social Security Investment Accounts, Indexing in
Bush Budget
Reform ideas that never caught on in 2006 are back in
the 2007 budget
Feb. 6, 2006 –
Read
more...
Bush 2007 Budget Cuts $36 Billion from Medicare,
$12 Billion from Medicaid
Feb. 6, 2006 – President Bush today released
his budget proposal for 2007, which includes proposals to "save an
estimated $36 billion over five years in Medicare." The statement on
Medicare and Medicaid says, "The key to preserving the promise of
Medicare for America's seniors and disabled is to enhance the
long-term fiscal solvency of the program." The cuts proposed for
Medicaid reduce costs by $12 billion. Major new expenditures in
Health Care are aimed at fighting the flu pandemic.
Read more...
Read more
on
Politics |
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According to CBO, the budget proposal over five
years would reduce spending for Medicare by $37 billion and for all
entitlement programs by $56 billion.
Over 10 years, the budget proposal would reduce
spending for Medicare by $138 billion and for all entitlement programs
by $184 billion, according to CBO (Cohn,
CongressDaily, 3/6).
The CBO report also estimates that the budget
proposal would increase the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over the
next 10 years. The report does not include military costs for
Afghanistan and Iraq after 2006 and "assumes that Congress freezes or
cuts the vast majority of discretionary government programs outside of
military and domestic security ones," the
Times reports (New
York Times, 3/4).
Congressional Prospects
Senate Budget
Committee Chair Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and
House Budget
Committee Chair Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) have said that they
support additional spending reductions for entitlement programs, and the
committees are expected to mark up the budget proposal on Thursday.
However, spending reductions for Medicare "are particularly difficult in
the Senate" because Sens. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Olympia Snowe
(R-Maine), both moderates, "hold sway" on the
Senate Finance
Committee, CQ Today
reports (Dennis, CQ Today,
3/3).
Some Senate Republicans also are "balking" at
spending reductions for Medicare, in part because of concerns about
their "prospects in this fall's midterm elections," the
Times reports (New
York Times, 3/4). As a result of expected opposition in
the Senate, the House might "opt for a slimmed-down version to preserve
negotiating room in conference with the Senate" (CongressDaily,
3/6).
Medical Imaging Services Reimbursements
In related news, 31 groups that represent medical imaging service
providers, patients and manufacturers maintain provisions of the FY 2006
budget reconciliation law
enacted
last month will limit access to care and discourage the
development of new technologies,
CQ HealthBeat reports.
The law caps the technical component reimbursement
for medical imaging services provided in physician offices to the lesser
of the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and the Medicare
physician fee schedule, according to the
American College of
Radiology.
In a letter to congressional leaders, the groups
write, "This provision singles out imaging services to absorb over
one-third of all the Medicare reductions" in the law. CBO estimates that
the law will reduce Medicare reimbursements for medical imaging services
by $2.8 billion over five years, but ACR estimates that the law will
reduce reimbursements by $6 billion over the same period. ACR officials
said that the law "will stifle research and development of new
technologies that are increasingly replacing more invasive, and often
more costly, procedures."
In addition, ACR officials said that the law might
increase out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Congress should
revise the law before the legislation takes effect in January 2007, ACR
officials said (Carey, CQ
HealthBeat, 3/3).
"Reprinted with
permission from kaisernetwork.org You can view the entire
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up
for email delivery at
www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report is published for
kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation. © 2006 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation.
All rights reserved.”
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