Study: House Republican plan to block grant Medicaid would lead to $1.7 trillion spending cut

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the GOP-backed House Budget Committee plan, which would also repeal the health law, could leave between 31 million and 38 million fewer people with Medicaid coverage. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.)

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: GOP Plan Would Cut Medicaid By $1.7 Trillion, Study Says
The House Republican plan to repeal President Barack Obama's health law and turn Medicaid into a block grant program would save the federal government $1.7 trillion from 2013 to 2022, a 38-percent spending reduction, according to a report today by the Urban Institute for the Kaiser Family Foundation (Galewitz, 10/23).

CQ HealthBeat: Kaiser Study Says House Budget Medicaid Plan Chops $1.7 Trillion
Projected federal spending on Medicaid would fall by $1.7 trillion from 2013 to 2022 under the plan the House Budget Committee approved earlier this year, says an analysis released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The plan could leave 31 million to 38 million fewer people with Medicaid coverage in 2022, said the analysis, prepared for the foundation by the Urban Institute. The Budget Committee plan, approved by that panel March 21, would repeal the 2010 health care law and convert Medicaid into a block grant program. The full House approved the plan March 29 (10/23).

Kansas Health Institute News: Romney Plan Would Cut Federal Medicaid Spending In Kansas By 36 Percent
If policies proposed by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, were put in place, among the results would be deep cuts in federal Medicaid spending in Kansas and other states, according to a new report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Nationwide, federal Medicaid spending would drop $1.7 trillion between 2013 and 2022, according to the analysis. Of that, $932 billion would come from repealing the Affordable Care Act. The other $810 billion would come from reductions or savings realized by converting Medicaid to a block grant program for states, capping the amount of federal aid each state could receive (Shields, 10/23).

In other news related to Medicaid --

Kaiser Health News: Questions Linger About Implementing Doctors' Medicaid Pay Raise
Starting Jan. 1, primary care doctors when treating patients on Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor, will get the same rates they are paid when caring for seniors in the Medicare program. The higher rates will last for two years. While Medicaid fees vary by state, they are generally far below Medicare and private plans. The change, which will cost $11 billion and will be paid by the federal government, means a 64 percent average pay increase, according to an Urban Institute analysis of the rates in 2010. But implementing the raise is not so simple (Galewitz, 10/23).