Jun 30 2011
Politico reports that advocates fear an idea proposed by the Obama administration to change the way federal matching funds work could have very negative results. Meanwhile, groups — including faith-based organizations — opposing Medicaid cuts continue to step forward.
Politico: Medicaid Cuts Could Come From Democrats
Defenders of Medicaid have been fighting hard against Republican proposals to cut the program, but they're just waking up to the threat of one proposed by the Obama administration. It's an idea to change the way federal matching funds work and save money in the process — and it would probably do it by shifting costs to the states. If that happens, Medicaid advocates fear, the states will just pass on the cuts to providers and, ultimately, the patients (Feder, 6/28).
The Hill: Opposition To Medicaid Cuts Crystallizes
The nation's largest Jewish organization announced Tuesday that it's convening other religious groups to fight Medicaid cuts, the same day a nonpartisan coalition of providers and health plans separately launched an ad campaign against the cuts. The Jewish Federation of North America says it's partnering with other major faith-based groups — Lutheran Services of America, Catholic Health Association and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism among them — to fight against Medicaid cuts. As part of its effort, the federation examined how the federal Medicaid funding cuts called for in House Republicans' budget proposal would affect the nation's largest cities (Pecquet, 6/28).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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