American Hospital Association
Vol. 31 No. 21
May 22, 1995
[Heading] AHA blasts proposed federal budget cuts
[Subheading] Association leaders favor less drastic measure
by Farah Kostreski

The GOP-controlled House last week passed a budget resolution that health care groups and many seniors believe moves too far too fast to curb Medicare and Medicaid spending.

The Senate this week continues debating a similar plan, which if passed, will set Congress on a course tar making the largest reductions in the federal health pro-grams' history.

After spurning alternatives offered by the Congressional Black Caucus. and conservative Democrats and Republicans who wanted deeper spending cuts. the House voted. 238-193. to approve a plan by House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-OH).

Kasich's S1.4 trillion deficit-reduction proposal would slow Medicare spending by 5283 billion. and Medicaid spending by S184 billion. over the next seven years.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich ( R-GA ) called Republican unity behind the plan "pretty amazing."

But House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt ( D-M0) maintained that Americans "are not balancing [the budget] on the backs of senior citizens and middle-income people."

President Clinton issued a May 18 statement noting that the House budget "fail to meet the test" of reducing the deficit and reflecting
Americans' values.

Earlier in the week, the president buoyed by a May 16 Washington Post/ABC News poll that found that most Americans oppose the GOP budget plans. urged congressional Democrats to reject Republican plans to reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending absent comprehensive health-system reform.

"We're extremely disappointed in what the House did."' said Tom Nickels. AHA vice president and deputy director of federal relations. The numbers are clearly too high to sustain."

In a May 17 letter. officials from the AHA and the Federation of American Health Systems offered support for the alternative crafted by Rep. Charles W. Stenholm ( D-TX ) and two dozen conservative Democrats. That plan would have trimmed Medicare spending by S174 billion by 2002—S109 billion less than Kasich's Medicare proposed cuts.

The same day, the AHA and the federation joined a coalition of 20 other hospital and health care provider groups in a letter to House members.

"We know that savings in the system can be achieved, and we are willing to accept sonic: reductions through restructuring," the groups stated. "The proposals put forward by the House Budget Committee, however, go too far, too fast."

The AHA and the federation ran a series of newspaper ads asking lawmakers to work with them to "reform, restructure and save money in Medicare—not gut it."

Six teaching-hospital officials converged on Capitol Hill May 16 to plead for parity.

The group, convened by the Washington-based Association of American Medical Colleges, said GOP plans to cut Medicare's hospital payment updates and graduate medical education add-ons amount to a double-whammy for them.

"We're willing to take our fair share, but not some sort of a KO punch." William Rice, chancellor and vice president for health affairs at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, told reporters.

Teaching hospitals may have allies in Senate Finance Committee members Alf once M. D'Amato R-NY) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY ). who represent the state with nearly 15 percent of the nation's teaching institutions.

The Senate debate continues this week, with members expected to cast final votes on May 25.

The Senate Budget Committee's plan would curb Medicare spending by $256 billion and Medicaid spending by $175 billion by 2002.

[Image] A dozen or more ADAPT people in wheelchairs sit in front of a door. There is a railing in the middle of the group and up against the door are two police officers. Kevin Ervin of West Virginia ADAPT is sitting on the left side of the photo behind the railing wearing dark sunglasses next to the standing person with the wild hair. Someone [maybe Mary Johnson of the Disability Rag] is on a phone next to the door. Above that persons's head is a poster taped to the wall that reads "Shame on Newt."
[Image caption] On Newt's doorstep. Capitol police guard the front door as disabled activists and other demonstrators portest proposed Medicare and Medicaid budget cuts outside House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-GA) apartment building.

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Пт 13 Сентябрь 2019

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• Baltimore - Washington DC, Spring 1995

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