Reply #16: Budget Plan May Hike Health Costs for Poor

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - The poor will have to pay a greater portion of their health care under spending cuts moving through Congress.

The House has signed off on a compromise bill that would trim federal spending overall by $40 billion over the next five years. The Senate vote is expected to be so close that Vice President Dick Cheney was called back to Washington in case he is needed to break a tie.

Under the compromise measure, states would have the option of charging premiums and increasing copays for Medicaid recipients. Typically, copays now range from 50 cents to $3 per service. Copays could increased dramatically for those with incomes above the poverty line. For those living in poverty, increases would be held to the rate of health care inflation.

The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that such increases would lead many poor people to forego health care or not to enroll in Medicaid at all — contributing to some of the $4.8 billion in Medicaid savings envisioned over the next five years. Medicaid is the state-federal program that provides health care for the poor.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051220/ap_on_go_co/congress_entitlements