[Peace-discuss] robbing Medicaid to pay Katrina

[Ricky Baldwin]

Well, that didn't take long!  Strange, it seems that a
bunch of Congressional fatcats who always wanted to
cut Medicaid anyway have decided that now they need to
do it to pay for this year's hurricane damage.  Hmmm. 
Sure, that makes sense: a bunch of poor people get
slammed by a hurricane, lots of national media
attention, bad, must get them some aid, but how to pay
for it?  Let's just take money out of their *left*
pockets and put it back in their *right* pockets.  And
then we can can congratulate ourselves on our
"compassionate conservatism"!  Oh, yeah, and the other
poor people should pitch in to help them, too. 
Government helps those who help themselves, and all
that.  Better to help build community among those
people, themselves, than to get them used to relying
on  charity from the rich anyway.  And of course you
can't legislate charity any more than morality, so no
new taxes -- on the rich anyway (cutting Medicaid
doesn't count as taxing the poor, technically anyway).

Bad.

-Ricky
 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)

September 25, 2005 Sunday TWO STAR EDITION

SECTION: NATIONAL, Pg.A-9

HEADLINE: CUTS IN MEDICAID EYED FOR STORM COST

BYLINE: Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
Proposals to pay for the staggering recovery costs of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by cutting back on
Medicaid health insurance for the poor and Medicare
drug coverage for seniors have set off a furor in
Washington.

Congress already had planned to slow the growth of
Medicaid spending, and when White House budget
director Joshua Bolten briefed senators last week on
the cost of responding to Katrina, which could amount
to $200 billion, he agreed that it could be offset in
part by further cutbacks in Medicaid and other federal
programs.

President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2006
calls for reducing Medicaid spending by $40 billion
over 10 years. State officials want to see changes in
the program, which now accounts for an average 21.9
percent of their budgets, but they would rather see
the federal government pick up more, not less, of the
program's rising costs -- especially in the wake of
Katrina. 

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former chairman of
the Republican National Committee and a good friend of
the president, sent exactly this message to Congress
last week, and he even lobbied to expand Medicaid
availability among victims of Katrina while having the
federal government pick up the entire cost for
recipients in Mississippi and Louisiana. It would be
"very helpful," he said.

With this fiscal year's federal deficit already
expected to reach $333 billion, lawmakers faced with
covering the costs of Katrina and Rita also have begun
toying with the idea of delaying the Medicare
prescription drug benefit, which is set to take effect
Jan. 1.

When it was approved by Congress, the drug benefit was
expected to cost less than $500 billion over 10 years,
but a more recent estimate puts the figure at $1.2
trillion. A Republican Study Committee, chaired by
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., last week recommended
delaying the Medicare prescription drug program for
one year to save $30.8 billion. The committee also
advocated sharp cuts in Medicaid, including a cap on
the federal share per enrollee and mandating higher
co-payments on various services. All told, the
committee said, the nation could save $481 billion
over 10 years.

William Novelli, executive director of AARP, the major
lobbying group for seniors, said there is only a
"small chance" that the drug benefit will be delayed
despite the enormous costs of the hurricanes. "This is
not the time to go backward on a plan that will keep
people healthier and out of the hospital," he said.

He also said Medicaid should be expanded, not reduced,
because thousands of evacuees have no medical
insurance and many face overwhelming medical problems.
AARP officials said the plight of Katrina victims has
boosted public support for Medicaid, which is often
the only health insurance coverage available to the
poor.

Alarmed by proposals to reduce Medicaid, about a
hundred people in wheelchairs rallied last week in
front of the house of Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist, R-Tenn. Others later protested at House and
Senate offices, where several were arrested.

NOTES:
Ann McFeatters can be reached at
amcfeatters at nationalpress.com or 1-202-662-7071.

LOAD-DATE: September 27, 2005 




		
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