DC is playing politics with health insurance for poor people.
President Barack Obama's budget next week will steer clear of major cuts to Medicaid, including tens of billions in reductions to the health care plan for the poor that the administration had proposed only last year.
Big cuts in the federal-state program wouldn't go over too well at a time that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is wooing financially skittish Republican governors to expand Medicaid coverage to millions who now are uninsured. That expansion in the states is critical to the success of Obama's health overhaul, which is rolling out this fall and early next year.
States would be foolish to expand Medicaid. There is no guarantee the feds will continue to "pick up the tab" in the future, leaving the states holding the bag.
California is on the brink of bankruptcy. Without a federal bailout they may very well become insolvent. Adding on millions for Medicaid won't help.
Illegal immigrants are prohibited by law from Medicaid coverage, yet Medicaid does reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care under EMTALA rules.
Many of those who are treated via EMTALA are . . . illegal immigrants.
Can you say loophole?
In recent weeks, senior White House officials have gone out of their way to reassure activists that Medicaid will be protected in the budget.
"Since generous federal funding for the Medicaid expansion is the key inducement for governors to decide to expand their programs, the administration does not want to undermine that inducement by cutting federal Medicaid funding,"
Here today, and possibly gone tomorrow.
Makes you wonder why this administration is playing nice with Medicaid while willing to throw seniors on Medicare under the bus.
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