Medicaid 'safety net' escapes changes
Rocky Mountain News
Published June 20, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Congress has voted to halt six proposed changes to Medicaid regulations that could have cost Colorado's health care programs an estimated $787 million over five years.
A moratorium on the pending rules changes was included in a bipartisan compromise over a supplemental spending bill for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Although the war funding question dominated the public debate, halting the Medicaid rules changes was a hot topic behind the scenes because critics said they would have a "devastating" effect on so-called safety- net hospitals and facilities that serve large numbers of low-income patients.
A bipartisan amendment prevents the Bush administration from enacting new cost limits for public medical providers, reducing payments for graduate medical education and making four other rule changes.
Citing state figures, congressional Democrats estimated that the regulations changes would cost Colorado facilities more than $157 million in 2008 or $787 million over five years.
Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, had been a vocal critic of the proposed regulation changes and hailed the congressional action Thursday night.
"The Bush administration's draconian Medicaid regulations would have had a devastating effect on our nation's health care safety net," DeGette said in a release, citing Denver Health as one of the facilities that would have taken a severe budget hit. "We need to support these institutions in the work they do, and I applaud the House for standing up for the health care safety net in this country."
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June 20, 2008
2:53 p.m.
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BrianSchwartz writes:
Should government threaten taxpayers with prison for not funding Medicaid? It's a terrible program, as I document in Medicaid is Hazardous to Your Health, published in the Denver Post last year:
http://www.patientpowernow.org/2007/0...
ALso, compulsory charity is immoral and impractical. For a tolerant alternative that rewards effective charities, see:
http://www.patientpowernow.org/2008/0...