Prepared Statement of The Honorable Joe Barton Medicaid Reform: The National Governors Association's Bipartisan Roadmap Full Committee on Energy and Commerce June 15, 2005 Good Morning. (While they have not yet arrived, let me begin by) thanking Governors Warner and Huckabee, for appearing before the Committee today. We appreciate their willingness to testify about a new bipartisan agreement to reform Medicaid that has recently been developed by the National Governors Association. Today’s witnesses played a central role in bringing Republican and Democratic governors together to develop and support these innovative concepts for Medicaid reform. The Governors are here today because Medicaid is in crisis. We have reached a point where there just are not enough taxes or taxpayers to keep Medicaid going. States now spend more on Medicaid than they do on schools, or anything else, for that matter. Analysts predict that in as few as 20 years, Medicaid will consume 80 to 100 percent of all state dollars. Without reform, Medicaid eventually will bankrupt every state in the nation. The only alternative is the eventual collapse of the Medicaid program. Here’s a thought that comes from someone I probably wouldn’t agree with much. He’s John Adams Hurson, a Maryland state legislator who is president of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Let me read you what Mr. Hurson says: ''I am a Democrat, a liberal Democrat, but we can't sustain the current Medicaid program. It's fiscal madness. It doesn't guarantee good care, and it's a budget buster. We need to instill a greater sense of personal responsibility so people understand that this care is not free.'' I couldn’t agree more. The proposals we will hear about this morning reflect the bipartisan views of the nation’s Governors. Governors know their state’s programs and beneficiaries, what they can afford and what levels of benefits and services are most appropriate for these vulnerable populations. Governors must struggle every day with Medicaid financing and service-delivery. Governors also see the flaws in the current program. They seem to understand how many middle class seniors hide their assets through creative accounting techniques so they can get Medicaid to pay for nursing home care. They see how Medicaid pays too much for some prescription drugs. They also know how Medicaid’s co-payment policies, with rates still frozen at their 1983 levels, discourage beneficiaries from taking responsibility for their health care decisions. This knowledge helped shape many of the Governors’ reform proposals. This will not stop critics from challenging these reforms. Some will say that any change to the system they love will hurt the poor. The critics conveniently ignore the fact that the system is already changing as states try to avoid ruin. Between 2002 and 2005, all states reduced provider rates and implemented drug cost controls; 38 states reduced eligibility; and 34 states reduced benefits. This year, hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries will lose Medicaid eligibility or face reduced benefits in states like Tennessee, Missouri, and Mississippi. We must do something because doing nothing hurts Medicaid patients every day. I want to save Medicaid. The Federal budget needs our help. The State budgets need our help. Medicaid beneficiaries need our help. I applaud the Governors and generally support the reforms they are bringing us. Medicaid is clearly in need of reform. This Committee is tasked by Congress, in the budget resolution, to reduce the growth of Federal spending. We’re going to do our best to meet that target, and I hope we can do it in a bipartisan matter. Just as important, though, is the importance of simply saving Medicaid. The exercise we discuss today is about much more than reconciliation – it is also about preserving the healthcare safety net that protects the nation’s poor. If we cannot make Medicaid more affordable to States and the Federal government, we will have put the beneficiaries who depend on the program at grave risk. There are serious challenges facing Medicaid today and the program is clearly at a crossroads. We need to look for innovative, bipartisan solutions for the problems facing Medicaid in order to strengthen and improve the program. Medicaid beneficiaries deserve nothing less. So do America’s taxpayers. Related Documents