Up to 44m more uninsured under GOP budget

[n2doc]

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The House Republican budget would leave up to 44 million more low-income people uninsured as the federal government cuts states' Medicaid funding by about one-third over the next 10 years, nonpartisan groups said in a report issued Tuesday.

The analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute concluded that Medicaid's role as the nation's safety net health care program would be "significantly compromised" under the GOP budget, "with no obvious alternative to take its place."

The budget passed by House Republicans last month on a party-line vote calls for sweeping health care changes, potentially even more significant than President Barack Obama's insurance overhaul. So far, most of the attention has gone to the part of the Republican plan that would convert Medicare into a voucher-like system for future retirees. But Medicaid would also be transformed.

The federal-state partnership now covers more than 60 million low-income families and seniors, including most nursing home residents, as well as disabled people of any age. Under the GOP plan, Medicaid would be converted from an open-ended program in which the federal government pays about 60 percent of the cost of services, into a block grant that would give each state a fixed sum of money.

The budget would also do away with the right to Medicaid benefits under federal law, and repeal a coverage expansion to low-income adults included in Obama's health care law.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110510/ap_on_re_us/us_medicaid_cuts

The "get sick and die" plan....

[sakabatou]

1. Kill, kill, kill, kill the poor