State Medicaid directors from around the country gathered this week in Washington, D.C. for their annual meeting and continued to express frustration and displeasure with the Bush administration's plans to continue to stick it to the states through the Medicaid program.

In short, Bush plans to create regulations that would force states to lower taxes on health care providers and other administrative changes that would limit the federal matching grant states are entitled to under the Medicaid program. The taxes help states pay for health care services covered under Medicaid, and result in higher matching grants from the federal government. Administration officials believe the changes will save $12.2 billion over the next five years. But state officials have repeatedly complained they've been left out of the conversation since the administration announced its plans in February, according to Stateline.org.

With the switch in control in Congress after the recent elections, we may begin to see the administration resort to these types of administrative changes more and more in order to cut program budgets rather than trying to ram their agenda through a hostile legislative branch. Unfortunately, such changes are much more difficult for the public to learn about and scrutinize and are often announced in the dead of night before a major holiday to intentionally obscure their impact.

See the below article for a great summary of the administrative changes and the ensuing political fallout.

Stateline.org: Medicaid directors frustrated by feds

Posted by Adam Hughes, 04:53:49 PM

Monday, November 13, 2006