Most Against Cuts to Medicaid, Poll Finds

Most Americans consider Medicaid a “very important” health-care program and would oppose reducing its funding, even if they think their state budget is in crisis or has problems, according to a survey released Wednesday.

“This poll shows that Americans across the political spectrum value the role Medicaid plays in our health-care system,” said Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation and executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

“As with the rest of the health-care system, much of the political debate surrounding Medicaid these days focuses on controlling costs, but proposals to cut funding for the program or scale back the coverage it offers do not appear to be popular with the public.”

Medicaid is a joint federal-state health-care program that covers about 53 million Americans with low incomes. The federal cost this year is expected to be about $320 billion.

Earlier this month, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law designed to cap Medicaid spending by shifting more of Florida’s 2.2 million beneficiaries into private managed-care organizations.

Meanwhile, Congress is considering President Bush’s proposal to reduce projected Medicaid spending by $10 billion over the next five years.

In the recent survey of about 1,200 people conducted for Kaiser by Princeton Survey Research Associates, three-fourths of the respondents said Medicaid is “very important” while about two- thirds said they believe their state’s budget was in crisis or has problems.

More than half of the respondents said they would “strongly” oppose reductions in their state’s Medicaid programs while nearly another one-fourth said they would “somewhat” oppose such reductions.

Democrats were more likely to oppose cuts than Republicans – 81 percent to 65 percent. Among independents, 75 percent opposed cuts.

larryl@coxnews.com