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July 07, 2003

Stop Block Granting Medicaid

The Bush administration has been allowing states to monkey with Medicaid benefits, a first step towards block granting money to the states and allowing them to spend it as they want-- and slashing federal investment at the same time. See this report by the Urban Institute on why this is a bad idea and this report by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities on how this fits into Bush's attempts to slash aid for the poor.

But now even Republicans are aghast that services promised to the elderly aren't being delivered under the "waivers" that some states have already implemented. A new General Accounting Office study finds the federal government has failed to meet statutory requirements to protect the elderly. For example, n Oklahoma27 percent of Medicaid recipients received none of their authorized personal care services, and 49 percent received only half of the authorized services. Here is Republican Chuck Grassley on the disaster:

"These waivers should be put on hold until the department gets a handle on the quality of care going to older and disabled Americans," said Mr. Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "Right now there's no accountability, and that's wrong."

Report Criticizes Federal Oversight of State Medicaid

Posted by Nathan at July 7, 2003 09:27 AM

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