Statement of Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
HEARING ON “MEDICAID: EMPOWERING BENEFICIARIES ON THE ROAD TO REFORM”

September 8, 2005

I am pleased that we are hearing from beneficiaries and healthcare providers on proposed funding cuts to Medicaid, one of this Nation’s most critical healthcare programs for our most vulnerable citizens. We will hear today from the people who will be directly and negatively affected by such cuts. We have already heard from Governor Warner and Governor Huckabee last June about the National Governors Association proposal. We know significant parts of the proposal would shift costs that are today shared by the Federal and State Governments onto the backs of families struggling to make ends meet.

I hope that some of what we will hear today from those representing infants and children, individuals living with disabilities, and the elderly, will give Congress pause about cutting Medicaid at this time. This is a program that provides health insurance to more than 50 million Americans. Coverage under Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) rose from 12.4 percent in 2003 to 12.9 percent in 2004. These increases helped offset the reduction in private employer-sponsored insurance and kept the percentage of uninsured Americans, including children, from rising in 2004.

Some of the proposals brought forward by the Governors and by the Bush Administration could have serious consequences for the health of millions:

• Evicting poor elderly from nursing homes or denying them admission when they need care;
• New cost-sharing burdens on the poorest of the poor, which we know result in forgoing care that often leads to higher medical costs later on;
• Reducing benefits for children that will affect their ability to grow and develop properly; and
• More uncompensated care for providers – many of whom would be forced to absorb the unpaid costs of their care or turn patients away.

 The proposed cuts to Medicaid are unwise to say the least. They are couched in terms of “flexibility” to allow States to more effectively manage their programs, but it is really flexibility to design State Medicaid programs in a way that could cause many needy families, already struggling to make ends meet, to lose their only healthcare coverage.

Last week, an unprecedented disaster struck our Gulf Coast. We still do not know the magnitude of the damage or how long it will take to restore lives and property to anything close to normal. But we do know that one of the greatest needs will be health care for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Healthcare coverage is imperative while these families are attempting to get their lives back together.

At this time, we should not be cutting Medicaid, but shoring it up, giving States the Federal assistance they will need to care for the influx of hurricane survivors. We should be giving States that have had their employment and tax base devastated the ability to quickly enroll families into healthcare programs without fear of penalty, and provide the Federal resources so necessary at a time of dramatic fiscal distress. Medicaid is one of our Nation’s critical safety nets. It has been there to serve those in need in disasters of the past and it must be there for those who need it now. Now is the time to strengthen, not weaken, such a vital healthcare program.

I welcome today’s witnesses, who will bring a human face to Medicaid, a program that protects tens of millions of our most vulnerable citizens, including those near the end of their lives, and those just beginning their lives.

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(Contact: Jodi Seth, 202-225-3641)