If Trump Administration Converts Medicaid Into Block Grants As Proposed In Budget, Dems Warn That Plan Will Face Firestorm Of Opposition
HHS Secretary Alex Azar faced four hours of questioning at a congressional hearing fending off criticism of President Donald Trump's proposed budget, which was released yesterday. The plan that drew the most heat was the president's desire to replace the current open-ended federal commitment to Medicaid with a lump sum of federal money for each state in the form of a block grant, a measure that would essentially cap payments and would not keep pace with rising health care costs. Azar refused to completely rule out the possibility of allowing states to move in that direction. Trump's proposed Medicare cuts also drew fire from lawmakers.
The New York Times:
Congress Warns Against Medicaid Cuts: ‘You Just Wait For The Firestorm’
If President Trump allows states to convert Medicaid into a block grant with a limit on health care spending for low-income people, he will face a firestorm of opposition in Congress, House Democrats told the nation’s top health official on Tuesday. The official, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, endured more than four hours of bipartisan criticism over the president’s budget for 2020, which would substantially reduce projected spending on Medicaid, Medicare and biomedical research. (Pear, 3/12)
CQ:
HHS Secretary Defends Proposed Medicare, Medicaid Cuts
The head of the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday defended the Trump administration’s proposed spending reductions to Medicare, Medicaid and discretionary health programs before lawmakers who were concerned the proposals would reduce access to care and set back medical research. HHS Secretary Alex Azar told members of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee that the proposed mandatory spending changes were meant to ensure long-term stability of the programs, but acknowledged the difficulty of trimming $12 billion from the agency's $102 billion fiscal 2019 discretionary budget. (Siddons, 3/12)
Modern Healthcare:
Trump's Medicaid Budget Plan Could Hit States, Enrollees Hard
The $1.5 trillion Medicaid cuts and the national work requirement in President Donald Trump's new proposed budget inject fresh uncertainty into the fate of current state efforts by Republicans to overhaul the healthcare program for poor and disabled Americans. While details in the budget document are sparse, it appears the administration wants to replace the existing state waiver process for testing changes with a new national program granting states unfettered flexibility to customize their Medicaid programs, accompanied by tight federal spending caps. That's similar to the Senate Republicans' Graham-Cassidy plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in 2017, which failed to pass. (Meyer, 3/11)
The Associated Press:
Trump's Cuts To Medicare Hospital Payments Trigger An Outcry
Democrats are accusing President Donald Trump of going back on his campaign promise to protect Medicare after he introduced a 2020 budget that calls for steep cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals. The budget embodies long-standing Republican ambitions "to make Medicare wither on the vine," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday. (3/12)
The Hill:
Analysis: Just A Tenth Of Trump's Proposed Medicare Cuts Directly Affect Seniors
Only about a tenth of the proposed Medicare cuts in President Trump’s budget would directly impact seniors, according to a new analysis. The analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) finds that the vast majority of the Medicare cuts in Trump’s budget, released on Monday, are to payments to hospitals and doctors, not cuts to benefits for seniors on the program. (Sullivan, 3/12)
And advocates react to Trump's HIV proposal —
The New York Times:
Trump’s Proposed Budget Undermines His H.I.V. Plan, Experts Say
President Trump’s 2020 budget request of an extra $291 million to fight the spread of H.I.V., experts said on Tuesday, will not be remotely sufficient to meet the goal he announced in his State of the Union address: to nearly eliminate the AIDS epidemic in the United States within 10 years. Mr. Trump’s plan focuses on 48 counties where about half of new infections occur, and seeks to cut the rate of new infections by 90 percent — from about 40,000 a year to about 4,000. (McNeil, 3/12)
