Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Thursday, April 24, 2008 House reverses Bush's Medicaid cuts; veto threatened Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The House voted Wednesday to block the Bush administration from cutting federal spending on Medicaid health care for the poor by $13 billion over the next five years. President Bush has threatened a veto, but supporters have more than enough votes in the House to override him, and maybe in the Senate, too. Two-thirds of the Republicans joined every voting Democrat in the 349-62 vote to impose a one-year moratorium, through next March, on seven rules changes that the administration argues are needed to rectify waste and abuse in the state-federal partnership to provide health care to the poor. Supporters of the bill said the rules would merely shift financial burdens to the states at a time of economic distress while reducing access to health care for the country's neediest people. The governors of all 50 states, state Medicaid directors and others oppose the rules, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., told the House. "They know the devastating effects these rules would have on local communities, upon hospitals, and upon vulnerable beneficiaries." The House vote margin was well above the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto. Congress has overridden a Bush veto only once, last November on a water projects bill. But the legislation must first move through the Senate Finance Committee and get a vote on the Senate floor. The Bush administration instituted the rules with the aim of saving the Treasury about $13 billion over five years and $33 billion over 10 years in programs that provide health coverage and nursing home care to the poor. The proposed rules would affect programs involving payment to public safety-net institutions, rehabilitation services for people with disabilities, coverage of hospital clinical services, graduate medical education payments and specialized medical transportation to school for children covered by Medicaid. In 2007, some 48 million people participated in Medicaid programs. The total cost was about $352 billion, with the federal government paying almost $200 billion and states providing the rest. The White House, in a statement Tuesday warning of a veto threat, said the bill would "thwart these efforts of the federal government to regain fiscal accountability and integrity in Medicaid."

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