Senate Blocks Medicaid Cuts, but House Keeps Them Intact

WASHINGTON–On Thursday, Medicaid, at least for the moment,
hopped off the Senate’s chopping block–but made no such move in
the House, where lawmakers kept cuts on the table.

The Senate voted 52-48 in favor of a FY 2006 budget resolution
with an attached amendment that would scrap instructions to cut
approximately $14 billion from Medicaid. In its place, the measure
supports legislation (S. 338) that would create a 23-member
bipartisan commission to present recommendations for a broad
overhaul of the federal-state health program by fiscal 2007.

On the same day, the House narrowly approved 218-214 a FY 2006
budget resolution that would cut about $15.1 billion for Medicaid
over five years.

The amendment preventing cuts on the Senate side was offered by
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who urged members to make changes to
Medicaid “right, not fast.” Smith successfully garnered support
from Democrats and the GOP, which some say signals a widening rift
between Republicans on Capitol Hill and the White House. Earlier
this year, President Bush proposed $60 billion in Medicaid cuts
over 10 years. Such cuts are politically sensitive, analysts say,
particularly when state governments are making their own Medicaid
cuts.

“I’ve seen my state already–without these cuts–have to
eliminate dental care and eye care,” Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, told
the Washington Post. “So this [budget] would be devastating
for the state of Ohio and the poor of Ohio.”

The amendment has raised eyebrows in the House, where Budget
Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, said he feared the House and
Senate may not be able to reach middle ground.

“It’s very disappointing to us what’s going on over there,”
Nussle told reporters last week. “I hate to be a naysayer about
this, but I’m not sure how we get [an agreement] with the Senate
… Last year, they were at least trying. This year, I think they
almost gave up before they started the process.”

The representative was vocal during last week’s budget debates,
saying the government should fix Medicaid’s financial troubles now
rather than later. Nussle called Medicaid a program that’s growing
“unsustainably out of control.”

The budget resolutions went to committee late last week.