GOP Pushes To Let States Reduce Medicaid Rolls

By Mary Agnes Carey and Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News, May 23, 2011

Medicaid covers about 56 million Americans, with states sharing the costs with the federal government. States have been barred from cutting eligibility for the program since 2009 when economic stimulus legislation gave states billions to prop up their Medicaid program on the condition they didn’t tighten eligibility standards. The 2010 health law extended this requirement until 2014.

President Obama and congressional Democrats say eliminating the “maintenance-of-effort” provision would increase the challenge of expanding Medicaid in 2014; an additional 16 million people will qualify, with the federal government picking up most of the cost.

The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee voted along party lines earlier this month to repeal the Medicaid “maintenance of effort” requirement. The legislation is expected to pass both the full Energy and Commerce panel and the GOP-controlled House. A vote on similar standalone legislation in the Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely but the measure could end up in a debt-limit package.

But liberals have at times been disappointed by Obama’s concessions, including last year’s deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts. They worry that the president will ultimately feel compelled to trade away the “maintenance-of-effort” requirements. The White House declined to comment.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/May/24/medicaid-maintenance-of-effort-republicans.aspx

As has been said many times in these messages, Medicaid is a welfare program, and our politicians will continue to approach it as such. It will remain underfunded and will always be vulnerable to budgetary decisions. Not only did the Affordable Care Act greatly expand coverage with the highly flawed private insurance plans, it also greatly expanded the highly flawed Medicaid program. It’s still not too late to eliminate these unsatisfactory programs and replace them with an improved Medicare that covers everyone.