Word: medicaid
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...Several different avenues for cost-cutting have been explored, including preventing fraudulent claims in Medicare and Medicaid and cutting programs and services that aren't deemed cost-effective. But one of the most recently touted potential methods, the creation of an independent board to take away from Congress the job of overseeing the rates of Medicare payments, took a hit late last week when the CBO estimated it would save only $2 billion over 10 years. The CBO acknowledged that the savings could turn out to be higher in the long run, but that qualifier highlighted one of the biggest...
...version. Aside from its support for contraception, none of the new or expanded initiatives it contains are terribly controversial: a national campaign to teach parents how to talk to their kids about sex, efforts to educate the public about adoption, home nurse visits for low-income mothers, expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage...
...What Congress is now considering is whether to make income alone the determinant of Medicaid coverage. Under the health-reform bill now being considered by the House, all non-elderly people earning at or below 133% of poverty - about $14,400 for an individual and $29,300 for a family of four - would be eligible. The House bill would have the Federal Government pick up the entire cost for those newly covered under Medicaid - $438 billion over 10 years. But a draft proposal by the Senate Finance Committee would have the feds paying the additional cost for only five years...
...Congressional Budget Office predicts that the House proposal would add 11 million to the Medicaid rolls, accounting for about a third of the estimated 40 million uninsured Americans who would gain health insurance under the proposal. But there are real questions as to whether the program could handle the strain of that many new clients. Already, it is difficult in some areas to find health-care providers who are willing to accept Medicaid patients. Governors warn that unless they increase the amount that Medicaid reimburses doctors and hospitals - and, with it, the cost of the program - the supply of providers...
...argument in favor of expanding Medicaid is largely one of efficiency. The existing program "is designed to meet the needs of low-income individuals and those with complex health needs and has an existing delivery, financing and administrative structure," says the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "Medicaid coverage for low-income adults could help establish a strong floor of coverage for the low-income population, upon which additional expansion efforts could build." And in some ways, it would be easier for the states to administer an income-based program, rather than one in which they have to keep track of whether...