Blocking Medicaid cuts

The House this week passed legislation to block new Bush administration rules that would cut Medicaid funding by $13 billion over the next five years.

The rules call for an array of cuts in federal payments to health care providers that include hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers for the developmentally disabled and school-based clinics.

President Bush has vowed to veto the House legislation, which would place a moratorium on the new directives.

But House members approved the measure by a 349-62 vote Wednesday — more than enough votes to override a Bush veto. The Senate is to consider, and is expected to pass, similar legislation in the next few weeks.

The moratorium would last until March 2009, which lawmakers say will give them time to examine each of the rules for merit. Bush administration officials have said the measures are needed to prevent states from taking advantage of the Medicaid system by shifting health costs onto the federal government.

Those who support the moratorium include the governors of all 50 states and state Medicaid officials who have said Bush’s plan would shift the burden of treating poor people onto states that already are cash-strapped. Such a move surely would result in fewer people being able to obtain medical care.

Hospital groups already have sued the federal government in an effort to block two of the directives — one of which would eliminate federal payments for medical education at teaching hospitals, the Associated Press reports. Without these payments, hospital officials say, it would be difficult to treat patients who are poor or uninsured.

School groups have opposed Bush’s plan to cut federal funding of services that transport children with disabilities from their homes to their schools, where they typically receive important care such as physical or speech therapy.

Bush has rammed this nation’s budget into the ground with bloated spending on a rudderless war and wasteful government contractors. It is inexcusable that he seeks to make ends meet by cutting funding to a program that provides medical care for the poorest and most vulnerable Americans.