Economic Stimulus Package Includes More Medicaid Funding

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem_news at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 25 16:37:10 PST 2008





Economic Stimulus Package Includes More Medicaid Funding

  

Source: The California Healthline ( http://www.californiahealthline.org
) 

Date: November 18, 2008

 

 

On Monday, Senate Democrats introduced a $100.3 billion
economic stimulus package (S 3689) that includes $37.8 billion in additional
federal Medicaid funds for states and $1 billion in additional funds for NIH, CQ
Today reports. 

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that he
hopes to hold a vote on the stimulus package on Wednesday. However, opposition
by Republicans likely will delay passage of the stimulus package until January 2009,
according to CQ Today (Schatz/Clarke, CQ Today, 11/17). 

 

Groups Seek Funds for Medicaid, Safety-Net Hospitals 

 

The National Conference of State Legislatures on Monday
called on Congress and President-elect Barack Obama to pass an economic
stimulus package that includes additional federal Medicaid funds for states. 

 

In a letter to Obama, NCSL Executive Director William Pound
wrote, "With the national financial markets in turmoil, state budgets are
adversely affected," and "even before recent economic events, budgets
in most states were faltering," adding, "An economic rescue package
for states will go a long way in providing immediate need for capital projects
and spur much-needed job growth" (Sanchez, CongressDaily, 11/17).

 

AARP this week also called on Congress to pass a stimulus
package that includes additional federal Medicaid funds for states. 

 

According to AARP spokesperson Jim Dau, the group plans to
have more than 50 state offices lobby lawmakers to pass such a stimulus package
and release information specific to states about the role of Medicaid as "a
powerful economic stimulator." 

 

Dau said, "AARP is starting a national push to make
sure that any economic stimulus package includes a temporary increase in
Medicaid funding for states, where budgets are getting crushed by the economic
downturn," adding, "Record budget deficits are forcing states to make
brutal decisions on cutting important programs, so we're trying to help by
taking Medicaid off the chopping block."

 

In addition, board members of the National Association of
Public Hospitals and Health Systems this week called on Congress to pass a
stimulus package that includes additional funds for safety-net hospitals. In a
letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the board members wrote, "We
urgently ask you to include in any stimulus legislation meaningful
countercyclical measures targeted at safety-net hospital systems and the
vulnerable patient populations we serve" (Frates, The Politico, 11/18). 

 

Opinion Piece 

 

"Last year at this time, many governors and state
legislators were imploring Congress to let them spend more money by expanding"
SCHIP, but today "governors and state legislators are singing a different
tune" as a result of increased budget deficits and decreased revenue and
are "imploring Washington to bail them out" with an economic stimulus
package, Steve Malanga, senior editor at the Manhattan Institute's City Journal,
writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. 

 

Malanga writes, "This is not the first time states have
been caught in this trap," as "many fail to address their deep, structural
budget problems during the good times, preferring to use booming tax revenues
to start or expand politically popular (and often costly) programs." In
addition, states have failed to "deal with huge and growing employee
pension and benefits liabilities," Malanga writes. 

 

He concludes, "Unfortunately, more federal aid all but
guarantees" that states "won't use the current crisis as an
opportunity to put their fiscal houses in order -- setting the stage for worse
problems to come" (Malanga, Wall Street Journal, 11/18).

 

http://www.californiahealthline.org/Articles/2008/11/18/Economic-Stimulus-Package-Includes-More-Medicaid-Funding.aspx



Abid Mogannam &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/

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