|
 |
 |
|
CBC to Obama: Protect Medicaid funds in fiscal deal
The Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday night urged President Obama protect Medicaid provider taxes from reductions, saying that failing to do so would “create insurmountable barriers to care” and would disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities.
Provider taxes are used by states to boost federal funding for Medicaid, and reducing them in a debt or budget deal as the "fiscal cliff" looms closer would “create insurmountable barriers to care, but also will have a disproportionate and severe impact on millions of racial and ethnic minority beneficiaries who are in need of long-term and post-acute care,” the caucus said in a letter Wednesday night.
While acknowledging that “Congress must find ways to reduce federal spending and fund a wide variety of critically important programs,” the caucus also said that it was “deeply concerned” that reducing the provider tax would negatively affect nine million people who apply for both Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
The letter puts pressure on the White House to shield the mechanism only a few days before a package of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts are scheduled to go into effect, and is the latest maneuver in an ongoing effort by congressional liberals to press the White House to preserve Medicaid in its current form in negotiations with conservatives.
While liberals have called for increased taxes in order to close the gap between spending and raised revenues, conservatives have argued that the problem is excess spending, and want to reform federal entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security as part of any deficit agreement.
