House Budget Plan Includes No Medicare Cuts

WASHINGTON–President Bush proposed $36 billion in Medicare
funding reductions over five years in his 2007 budget–including
shortening the 36-month rental cap on home oxygen to 13 months. But
last week, the House of Representatives Budget Committee gave its
approval to a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint without the
reimbursement cuts, and without any cuts to Medicaid.

While that’s hopeful news for the industry, Washington observers
say, it’s by no means a done deal. Lawmakers are hesitant to cut
Medicare in an election year, but there is continuing pressure to
trim spending for entitlement programs to keep the nation’s deficit
in check.

Medicare spending cuts could still be considered by the House
Ways and Means Committee this year, which has been instructed to
find $4 billion in savings over five years from the programs under
its jurisdiction. A committee aide told reporters that target could
be met through programs such as welfare, unemployment insurance,
trade and pensions, but Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle,
R-Iowa, said it could come from Medicare.

Health care providers have been urging rejection of any Medicare
spending reductions, citing restricted beneficiary access and
lowered quality of care.

In mid-March, the Senate Budget Committee also approved a
version of the budget that included no Medicare cuts.