Medicaid aid sought in stimulus package
WASHINGTON –Several healthcare groups have banded together to ask Congress for an increase in federal funding of Medicaid program subsidies.
The National Governors Association has written a similar request to Congress, seeking $6 billion in Medicaid assistance by increasing the federal percentage in funding for the program.
In addition, late last month, the NGA further requested that Congress delay implementation of pending Medicaid regulations that would shift an estimated $13 billion in federal costs to the states.
More than 50 groups, ranging from unions to charitable organizations to healthcare organizations, wrote to Congress in late January to ask for temporary assistance to states to help avert cuts in healthcare, education, aid to local governments and critical services.
"State and local fiscal assistance should be a vital component of any economic stimulus package," the letter said. "We urge you to adopt a provision, based on the successful 2003 legislation that temporarily increases the federal Medicaid match as well as general funding aid to state and local governments."
The letter noted that Medicaid rules proposed or issued by the administration would cut federal funding for state Medicaid programs by about $3.5 billion in fiscal years 2008 and 2009. "Congress must act to address these cost-shifting and adverse regulations as quickly as possible," it urged.
The NGA has asked for $12 billion in assistance over one year, with $6 billion in Medicaid assistance and $6 billion in a flexible block grant.
"Countercyclical funding should be included in any federal economic stimulus package because it is the most effective means to avoid the budget cuts and tax increases that states will be forced to make," the group said in its letter.
The NGA letter noted that the federal share in the Medicaid program will decline in the next two years, just as the economic downturn forces more children and families to seek healthcare assistance. The letter pointed to the benefit of the 2003 intervention in Medicaid.
"Evaluations of the temporary increase found that Medicaid had an important role as a fiscal stabilizer," it said.
In a separate letter to the Senate Committee on Finance, the American Hospital Association called for Congress to act on two matters – a regulation that restricts payments to government-operated hospitals and one which eliminates federal Medicaid support for graduate medical education.
The AHA letter also suggested that two pending rules on defining outpatient hospital services and provider tax situations be delayed.
