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Legislative Update Week of February 24, 2003
Senate Finance Committee Explores Health Care Proposals It’s not often that everyone on Capitol Hill agrees on anything, but something pretty close seemed to occur at a hearing held on Thursday, February 27: (1) the sooner a Medicare prescription proposal is enacted, the better, and (2) states’ budgetary conditions, especially with respect to Medicaid, are critical and need to be addressed. The Senate Finance Committee hearing, chaired by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) featured Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson talking about the Administration proposals on Medicare and Medicaid. The basis of the Administration’s Medicaid proposal is to provide incentives to financially strapped states now and offer additional flexibility in the “optional” part of Medicaid services (certain populations and certain services). Senator Grassley mentioned that many seniors who are in nursing homes, and who become impoverished by such costs, rely on Medicaid. He expressed his belief that, under “optional” care service programs managed by states, nursing home standards and protections need to be retained. Secretary Thompson assured Senator Grassley that those protections would remain in tact. A second issue of concern to Senator Grassley, as well as to several other Members of the Committee who represent rural states, is ensuring fairness between those who live in rural areas and those who live in urban areas. Specifically, the Senators said that they do not want to see private companies provide service only in urban areas where it may be more economically advantageous to do so, thus leaving those in rural areas without a full array of services. TSCL is glad to see Senator Grassley and others raise such issues. We want to see that all seniors have access to affordable health care, as well as to a full-range of medical care with protections ensured for the patient. We support the Administration’s goal for preventative care, and for giving states flexibility to move forward with common sense, “best practices” solutions and allowing states to try new ideas that will provide appropriate services at a more affordable cost. We are concerned that states may cut services or increase co-payments due to budgetary restraints. We will encourage Members of Congress to move forward in developing a sound plan that will treat all seniors fairly. March 2003 | ||||||||
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