Earlier this month I wrote that the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill that would reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending by $10 billion over five years. The full Senate approved the bill on November 4, 2005, and the House of Representatives recently passed its version of the bill, which would cut Medicaid funding by $12 billion over five years.
If both chambers of Congress approve the House version of the bill, expect the following changes:
- Medicaid co-payments may rise with inflation;
- People with home equity of $750,000 or higher would be denied long-term care coverage;
- States may impose new costs on beneficiaries and scale back coverage;
- Pharmacies would be encouraged to sell generic drugs, and payments to pharmacies would be reduced. (Medical News Today)
As expected, the vote was divided along party lines, with the bill passing by a mere two votes. From the Dallas Morning News (free reg. req.):
“Our children will drown in a sea of debt or a sea of taxes if we don’t reform these entitlement programs,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, a leader among House conservatives pushing for budget cuts. “Food stamps will be up. Medicare will be up. Medicaid will be up. … Last I looked in Webster’s dictionary, ‘cut’ means to reduce.”
But Democrats and advocates for the poor characterized the spending shifts as real cuts with real consequences.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that 300,000 people would lose food stamps under the House GOP plan….That includes at least 36,000 in Texas. And the state would lose more than $900 million in Medicaid funds over the five years.
