Last week, the nation's governors came out in strong opposition to the $18.2 billion in cuts President George W. Bush proposed in his 2009 budget as well as Medicaid regulations that would reduce funding to states by billions more over the next five years. In a strongly worded letter on February 25, the bipartisan leaders of the National Governors Association—Governors Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), Edward G. Rendell (D-PA), James H. Douglas (R-VT), and Jon Corzine (D-NJ)—called upon the bipartisan leadership of Congress to stop Medicaid regulations promulgated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) over the last year.      

"While states are committed to upholding their responsibility to Medicaid, we have significant concerns that the actions taken by CMS will effectively end the Federal government's participation in many crucial components of the Medicaid program and inappropriately shift those costs to states," the Governors said. "Congressional action is needed to prevent the rules from becoming final and to provide for a more appropriate and thoughtful review by Congress of these important policy changes."      

Further, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 26, Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) called for the passage of another economic stimulus package, this time with assistance to states, including an increase in the Federal Medicaid matching rate.      

"Medicaid needs your immediate attention," Governor Napolitano said. "States expected an enrollment increase during our economic downturn. What states did not expect—and should not occur—was the intentional move by the Administration to remove billions of dollars of Federal Medicaid dollars from our existing health care system" through regulations. "Taken together, these regulations reduce Federal investment in Medicaid by close to $15 billion over the next five years and enact substantive policy changes that, in many cases, Congress has considered and expressly rejected. . . . In Arizona, we stand to lose nearly $30 million this year in investments in graduate medical education-a program that has been essential to attracting and training new health care professionals and extending access to low-income individuals." 
     
Congress has placed a moratorium through May 25 on the implementation of two regulations to eliminate Medicaid funding for graduate medical education and to drastically reduce funding for public providers. Other regulations, however, have been proposed since the moratoria were enacted last year, including damaging regulations on Medicaid outpatient services and on permissible taxes states may levy on health care providers. GNYHA will continue to work with the New York delegation to bar implementation of those regulations, in part through gaining support for H.R. 3533, the Public and Teaching Hospital Preservation Act, sponsored by Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), which would extend the moratoria into 2009. GNYHA is also strongly supporting H.R. 5268, sponsored by Congressmen Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Peter King (R-NY) to provide for a temporary Federal Medicaid matching rate increase for states.