Politico reports that hospital CEOs and leaders are urging the U.S. Senate to “preserve” Medicaid and reconsider a new Senate proposal that would cut federal Medicaid reimbursement contributions to some 40 states. These states use a provider tax from the federal government under Medicaid expansion rules to obtain more federal funding, but changes in the Senate language of the budget reconciliation bill would see the tax nearly cut in half.
States who did not pass any Medicaid expansion, only ten in the country, can maintain their provider tax levels under a moratorium. Several Republican senators are asking for changes and going straight to the White House about their concerns.
This comes as a new Washington Psot-Ipsos poll shows 42 percent of those surveyed oppose the tax and spending changes for Medicaid in the budget bill. More surprisingly, 34 percent have no opinion about the bill. Twenty-three percent support the bill and can count Republicans surveyed as their biggest supporters at 49 percent. Six percent of Democrats surveyed support the bill with a whopping 74 percent opposed.
The survey ran online from June 6-10 among 1,167 U.S. adults.
