Analysis: Ryan's GOP budget plan would cause deep reductions in Medicaid coverage

The analysis, advanced by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute, could lead to as many as 44 million people being cut from the rolls in the next decade. Meanwhile, Politico reports that, in the background, some states are fast-tracking their efforts to expand coverage — in keeping with the requirements of the health law.

The New York Times: Critics Fear GOP's Proposed Medicaid Changes Could Cut Coverage For The Aged
As Republicans inch away from their plan to reshape the nation's Medicare program, their equally transformative ideas for Medicaid, now largely in the shadows of the budget debate, are moving front and center. While the largest number of Medicaid recipients are low-income children and adults, who tend to be far less politically potent voices in battles over entitlement programs than older voters, the changes to Medicaid proposed by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the House budget chairman, could actually have a more direct impact on older Americans than the Medicare part of his plan (Steinhauer, 5/10).

Los Angeles Times: Study: 44 Million Could Lose Medicaid Coverage Under GOP Plan
House Republican plans to repeal the new health care law and to convert the Medicaid insurance program into a block grant to states could force as many 44 million poor and disabled Americans out of the program over the next decade, according to a new analysis by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation (Levey, 5/10).

Kaiser Health News: Study Details How GOP Budget Plan Would Cut States' Medicaid Funding
Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz reports: "Eight states - including Florida, Colorado and Georgia - would lose more than 40 percent of their federal funding for Medicaid over the next decade under the House Republicans' plan to repeal the 2010 federal health law and convert Medicaid into a block grant program, according to an analysis of the plan's effects on states released today" (Galewitz, 5/10).

CBS: GOP Budget Leaves 44M More Uninsured, Groups Say
The House Republican budget would leave up to 44 million more low-income people uninsured as the federal government cuts states' Medicaid funding by about one-third over the next 10 years, nonpartisan groups said in a report issued Tuesday. The analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute concluded that Medicaid's role as the nation's safety net health care program would be "significantly compromised ... with no obvious alternative to take its place," if the GOP budget is adopted (5/10).

PBS NewsHour: Study: 44 Million Could Lose Medicaid Coverage Under GOP Plan
A new study released Tuesday by two nonpartisan organizations added new fuel to the debate over debt and spending when the report found that debt reduction proposals by House Republicans lawmakers could leave up to 44 million more low-income and disabled Americans without health insurance. Currently, about 45 million Americans are uninsured. The analysis was done by the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and researchers at the Urban Institute. The federal health care reform law passed last year provides for a major expansion of the Medicaid program in 2014, making almost anyone earning 133 percent of the federal poverty level eligible for the government's health care safety net. For an individual, that equates to a salary of about $14,500 a year (Bowser, 5/10).

And in other Medicaid news -

Politico Pro: Some States Fast Track Medicaid Expansion
The federal health reform law may not expand Medicaid until 2014, but some states and even more insurance companies are well under way laying the groundwork for an expected wave of 16 million new beneficiaries. Three states — California, Minnesota and Connecticut — as well as the District of Columbia have opted to grow their Medicaid programs in advance of the required expansion in 2014 and initial results indicate very active take-up among new beneficiaries. The early expansions of Medicaid will be a crucial test of how successful states can be at enrolling uninsured populations. The states are also testing how well their safety nets — stressed by budget cuts — can absorb the new people (Kliff, 5/11).