House Committee’s Cuts to Medicaid Are Unacceptable
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ — The American Public Health Association (APHA) is gravely concerned with the budget package passed early today by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which cut more than $11 billion from the Medicaid program over five years.
"These cuts are wholly unacceptable," said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "Medicaid provides essential health coverage to our nation’s most vulnerable. The committee’s package undercuts the public’s health and harms beneficiaries. We cannot support it."
The Senate Finance Committee passed its package earlier this week, and according to APHA, while it’s better than the House version, its provisions must be significantly improved.
Both the House and Senate have recognized the need to extend Medicaid coverage to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but according to APHA the approved funding levels are insufficient to meet the growing demand for the program, especially in light of Hurricane Wilma.
"Medicaid ensures the health and survival of millions of individuals and families by giving them access to primary and preventive health services that they could not obtain otherwise," said Benjamin. "We must have sustained investment in this invaluable program that protects the health and lives of Americans."
Among the reasons APHA is unable to support the House Energy and Commerce Committee package are the following:
– By striving to achieve artificial, short-term financial savings rather than improving the Medicaid program, the package stands to disproportionately affect minority and rural beneficiaries and exacerbate health disparities.
– It allows states to lessen the scope of the benefits package afforded to many Medicaid beneficiaries by allowing them to reduce benefits coverage to those covered by HMOs, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program or state employee health plans. This provision permits states to curtail needed services for millions of children above the poverty line, including services covered under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) program.
– It allows states to impose co-payments, even premiums, on a great number of Medicaid beneficiaries, including some who have been exempt from such financial burdens in the past.
The Senate Finance Committee’s approach, which according to APHA is more reasonable, doesn’t include the harmful provisions that would allow states to impose enforceable, unaffordable co-payments that endanger the health of Medicaid recipients and provide less comprehensive health coverage to low-income children. However, APHA urges the conferees to reinvest any savings it identified in other parts of the program back into Medicaid and to set aside a higher amount of funding for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita victims to more adequately protect the health of survivors.
APHA recently released a report that outlines four priorities policy-makers should protect when considering Medicaid reform:
– ensure access to preventive services;
– guarantee treatment for children with conditions and illnesses detected during screenings;
– prohibit cost sharing for receipt of covered services; and
– assure access to affordable prescription drugs.
The report, "Medicaid, Prevention and Public Health: Invest Today for a Healthier Tomorrow," is available at http://www.apha.org/ medicaidwhitepaper/ medicaidwhitepaper(under)full.pdf.
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Founded in 1872, the APHA is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. The association aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community- based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States. APHA represents a broad array of health providers, educators, environmentalists, policy-makers and health officials at all levels working both within and outside governmental organizations and educational institutions. More information is available at http://www.apha.org.
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