Anybody else on worried about this vote on Medicaid?

[rockedthevoteinMA]

I am. If I lose medicaid I can't go to therapy, or get the help I need. Is it going to effect mentally ill? Argh. Just when I thought I might be safe. :cry:

House Passes Budget That Cuts Medicaid



WASHINGTON - The House narrowly passed a $2.6 trillion budget Thursday evening that would cut back the Medicaid health care program for the poor for the first time since 1997 in a step toward trimming federal deficits.

The 214-211 vote approved a blueprint that instructs lawmakers to freeze or cut spending in many domestic programs outside defense and homeland security and restrain farm, student loan, pension and some other government programs that grow automatically from year to year.

The Senate simultaneously debated the measure and moved toward a vote Thursday night.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said it's time to look closely at benefit programs that are "popular but rife with waste."

"These entitlement programs deserve reform," he said. "The Medicaid system is antiquated and the quality of care is not being brought to the people that need it."

...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050429/ap...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1431741#1432693

Ted Kennedy is working on it though... as an alternate to *'s speech last night, Kennedy was on CSPAN, ripping about these cuts.

...

MEDICAID Just last month, the Senate made it clear that cuts to the Medicaid program were unacceptable. In a bipartisan vote, we agreed to not make any cuts until a bipartisan commission had time to examine the Medicaid program and recommend possible reforms based on sound policy. And just this week, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the House instructed the budget conferees not to cut Medicaid.

Yet the budget we will be voting on shortly not only cuts Medicaid -- despite consensus in both the House and Senate against cuts -- its cuts to the program are deeper than those we voted down in March. The Senate rejected $15 billion in cuts to the Finance Committee last month, yet this budget report that was drafted in the dark of night behind closed doors forces the Finance Committee to cut $10 billion.

And if these cuts were not bad enough, the bipartisan Medicaid commission has turned into a partisan commission that the Administration can stack with members they know will recommend the cuts their predetermined cuts. Instead of a real examination of the Medicaid program so that we can modernize the program with needed reforms, we will have a commission whose agenda will be to recommend cuts.

...



http://kennedy.senate.gov/index_high.html

[ernstbass]

1. I am very worried for my clients

This will have a major impact on many people

[Blue_Roses]

2. Yes, and it really pisses me off!

Bush did the same crap in Texas when he was governor. He hurt the Medicaid system so bad that it was pathetic. I loathe this man. :mad:

[tibbir]

3. I'm on Medicare, not Medicaid

but since the goal is to do away with Medicare along with Social Security I feel a lot of dread any time Congress tries to encroach upon any of it. Bush really did wreak havoc on Medicaid when he had a chance here in Texas.

[EFerrari]

4. I don't really know how this is possible, but this misAdministration

seems to be ripping off Medicaid AND gutting it at the same time.

I can't let it worry me. Doug needs his meds and he needs access to a SKILLED therapist. There's no "no access" option for him. If I have to start selling my hair or something, I'll just have to do that.

Of course, impeaching Bush would work just as well or better. :evilgrin: