Medicaid Cuts Pass House and Senate Committees
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law: "April 29, 2005—Last night, the Congress approved its budget resolution, which sets spending guidelines for fiscal year 2006. Its approval clears the way for billions in cuts to the Medicaid program, the single most significant source of public financing for mental health services, and for freezing spending on other domestic discretionary programs, including mental health programs, for three years.
The budget resolution passed the House by a vote of 214 to 211 and the Senate by a vote of 52 to 47. It cuts $10 billion over five years from Medicaid, the first such cut to the program since 1997.
[Ed.- Ten House members did not show up to vote at all. Only four of these members could have altered the outcome. I don't have the names of all ten, but here are six of them: Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY 10) (202) 225-5936; Representative Steve Rothman (D-NJ 12) (202) 225-5061; Representative William Jefferson (D-LA 2) (202) 225-6636; Representative Harold Ford (D-TN 9) (202) 225-3265; Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX 25) (202) 225-4865; Representative James Clyburn (D-SC 6) (202) 225-2313.]
Medicaid plays an increasingly crucial role in helping low-income children and their families, the elderly and Americans with mental and physical disabilities to access needed healthcare.
The resolution does not detail where these cuts should come from; instead lawmakers have picked a number based on a desire to cut federal entitlement programs. However, President Bush's proposed FY 2006 budget suggested specific cuts to Medicaid, and lawmakers will likely look to those changes first.
Among the cuts the President proposed were several that would hurt people with mental illnesses who rely on the public mental health system. In particular, significant cuts to targeted case management services were included. Targeted case management is an important community-based Medicaid service for children who require wraparound services to help them avoid school failure, contact with juvenile justice authorities and other adverse outcomes. For adults, it is equally vital in linking them to a range of critical support services, such as housing and employment.
Furthermore, reductions in the number of people eligible and in services covered by the federal government would almost certainly be needed to meet targets in the House and Senate budget resolutions.
Now that the budget resolution has been passed, Congressional committees will use the $10 billion target as a guideline for making specific policy changes to Medicaid and other programs, as well as for setting appropriation levels for other programs, such as those run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration."
[...]
"Although advocates’ efforts to stop Medicaid cuts were not entirely successful, the final budget resolution calls for roughly half of the $20 billion initially called for by the House."
posted by Gordon D. Smith, LPC @ 3.5.05
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