Bush Tells Governors He'll Help With Medicaid Changes (unsustainable)

[cthrumatrix]

Bush Tells Governors He'll Help With Medicaid Changes (Update2)

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush pledged to work with state governors to help revamp the Medicaid program for the poor as rising costs squeeze state budgets.

``Medicaid, as it's now structured, is not sustainable,'' National Governors Association Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters today after a White House meeting with Bush. ``Unless we can fix Medicaid, it's going to break a lot of states,'' said Governor Michael Huckabee, an Arkansas Republican.

snip

``The system needs to be reformed,'' Bush told the governors. ``We want Medicaid to work.'' He also said he wants to expand the number of low-income children covered, without saying how to pay for it.

snip

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=asBz0.gxiozM&refer=us#

[punpirate]

1. There's that word again...

... "reform." When Bush says it, you can count on a plan that won't help the problem a bit without hurting the worst off.

[wishlist]

2. Medicaid spending has grown by more than 50% during Bush presidency

These facts were cited in the USA Today version of this article:

"The program is exploding because of demographic changes driving more and more elderly onto the program, which cares for two-thirds of the nation's nursing home residents. Rolls are swollen, too, when private employers drop health care for employees, who turn to the state.

Medicaid enrollment jumped 40% in the past five years, and spending has soared, too. From 2001-2004, Medicaid spending grew by more than 50%"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-02-28-medicaid_x.htm

Another catastrophic failure under Bush & Co's lousy economic policies.

[cthrumatrix]

3. the media never portrays it as "economics" are driving the NEED

for Medicaid.... they would like us to remain sheeple

[Igel]

4. Medicaid was bankrupting the county I lived in in NY.

Medicaid costs kept rising faster than inflation for years, but until 2001/2002 or thereabouts county revenues kept increasing, so there wasn't a problem. Then revenues declined, *and* the state decided to include far more low-income kids and make the counties pay for it. Crunch. State politicians preened, counties were trying to figure out how to make ends meet.

They finally had to put a tax increase on the ballot, I think, with no guarantee that they wouldn't do the same thing the following year.

[MasonJar]

5. Where else can the millions without jobs thanks to dumbo go for

necessary health care.