Representatives Gather Signatures To Support Proposal That Would Permanently Eliminate 15% Home Health Cut

Reps. John Peterson (R-Pa.) and Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.) have amassed the signatures of 113 House members who support a proposal that would eliminate a pending 15% annual cut in home health care funding, set to take effect in October, CongressDaily reports. The cut, part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, has been delayed by Congress each year through "subsequent Medicare 'giveback' bills" (CongressDaily, 2/26). The cut was delayed last year, but was not permanently removed (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 4/6/01). In a Feb. 26 letter to House Budget Committee Chair Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) and committee ranking member John Spratt (D-S.C.), Peterson and Hilliard "urge[d]" lawmakers to "permanently eliminat[e]" the cut. They wrote, "Home health funding has already been cut far more deeply and abruptly than any other benefit in the history of the Medicare program." Furthermore, Peterson and Hilliard said that the cut is "unnecessary" because the "savings target" set by the Balanced Budget Act has already been "quadrupled" (CongressDaily, 2/26).