With Republicans retreating from their proposal to revamp Medicare, Congress' efforts to cut federal healthcare outlays will likely focus all the more on Medicaid, according to a report by the Hill.
Advocacy organizations expect the House Energy and Commerce Committee to move quickly on a bill that would let states set new Medicaid eligibility rules. The bill, introduced last week, would repeal the healthcare reform law's "maintenance of effort" requirements blocking states from cutting their Medicaid rolls before expansion of Medicaid programs in 2014.
Under the GOP-controlled House's budget proposal, more than $1.3 trillion of the savings would come from Medicaid. These cuts haven't attracted the same political uproar as Republicans' proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher program because, Democrats said, "seniors vote in large numbers, whereas Medicaid primarily serves children and the poor," the Hill reported.
Read the Hill report on Medicaid.
Related articles on Medicaid cuts:
New GOP Bill Would Drop Reform's Expansion of Medicaid Rolls
CMS Issues Proposed Rule for States Setting Medicaid Rates
CMS Won't Let Florida Privatize Medicaid Program for Now