Relating to Consideration of S. 1932, Deficit Reduction Act of 2005

RELATING TO CONSIDERATION OF S. 1932, DEFICIT REDUCTION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - February 01, 2006)

Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, if we want to talk about who won and who lost, let us talk about who did win. It was not special interests. It was those who qualify under the Family Opportunity Act who for the first time for families with disabled children who may be up to 300 percent of poverty will now be able to receive services. That will be 115,000 children who are disabled that will gain Medicaid coverage by 2015, according to CBO.

The Home and Community Based Services, the estimate is that another 120,000 enrollees will be able to take advantage of this, getting services in their own home or in their community, rather than having to go to a nursing home.

With the program that is included of money following the person, instead of people having to go into a nursing home again, they will be able to have services in their own home; and it is estimated that another 100,000 people are going to qualify for that over the next 8- to 9-year period.

So those are some of the people who are certainly going to be benefited. Now let us talk about the program overall. Medicaid is a program that is out of control. Even with the reforms of slowing it down by three-tenths of 1 percent over the next 5 years, it is still going to grow at an estimated 7 percent growth rate; and over the next 10 years, we are going to be spending in State and Federal money $5.2 trillion.

Let us talk about some of the claims that have been made during the time we have been in recess that are without substance and fact. One is with regard to copays. The Governors told us they wanted to be able to put some personal responsibility back into the program and that copays were one way to do it. But we wanted to make sure that we did not hurt the most vulnerable.

As a result, there are no enforceable copays to be charged to beneficiaries and families with incomes below the Federal poverty level. In addition, copays cannot be charged to a select group of individuals in these big categories: mandatory children, individuals receiving adoption and foster care assistance, preventive care and immunizations, pregnancy-related services, hospice residents, institutional spend-down populations, emergency services, family planning services, women who qualify for Medicaid under the breast and cervical cancer eligibility.

Also one of the claims is that we would do away with the early screening of children. It is specifically included in the plan that these children must be included in the so-called ESPDT program regardless of whether the State elects to provide services in an optional format or otherwise.

One of the other areas is with regard to the reforms we have made in asset transfers, the so-called ``millionaires on Medicaid.'' Yes, we have tightened the rules, as we should do. But we have specifically made sure that anyone who is in a legitimate hardship area will have an exclusion, and States are required to provide a review process to make sure that that happens.

So we believe overall that the reforms are needed. There are the kinds of reforms that the Governors have asked us to make so that we can keep the program solvent; otherwise, as the Governors' national representatives on a unanimous basis told us in the committee, if we do not, Medicaid over the long haul will be unsustainable.

So therefore I urge you to adopt the provisions that are included in this bill.

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