Grassley demands report on Medicaid finances and enrollment

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, pressed the Obama administration to release a congressionally mandated report on the status of the Medicaid program. The report, due Jan. 1, is required to cover the “financial status of, enrollment in, and spending trends for” Medicaid.

“The report might contain bad news, but we all need to see it,” Grassley said in a statement. “The new health care reform law expands Medicaid by the greatest amount in the program’s history, yet states are already struggling to afford their existing Medicaid responsibilities. A true picture of Medicaid’s financial state is necessary to ensure that services are funded adequately for the millions of people who rely on the program.”

Grassley made the request in a letter sent Thursday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.