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| House Health Subcommittee Examines Long Term Care |
April 27, 2005 |
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Wilson Discusses Need for Medicaid Overhaul
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Heather Wilson, who chaired a Medicaid Task Force in the 108th Congress, today discussed Medicaid at the Heath Subcommittee hearing entitled “Long Term Care and Medicaid: Spiraling Costs and the Need for Reform.”
Wilson has been urging a focus on long term care since her work on the Medicaid Task Force. The hearing topic was suggested by Wilson and the task force last year.
“I believe the future growth in long term care spending is without a doubt the number one challenge facing the Medicaid program,” Wilson said today before the Health Subcommittee. “Medicaid pays for 70 percent of nursing home patients. We need to have a national discussion on long term care financing and start to think about how we’re going to get more private dollars into the system. The program is in need of significant reform.”
Wilson, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is the lead sponsor of H.R. 985, a bill which would create a bipartisan Medicaid Commission and has 225 cosponsors in the House.
“I believe that long term care financing by Medicaid is in need of significant reform, but I don’t believe the budget process is the right way to go about it. Policy should drive the budget, not the other way around. As many of you know, I have suggested establishing an independent, bipartisan Medicaid Commission to make recommendations for reform, including in the area of long term care. This legislation now has the support of more than half the members of the House. A commission would provide the right forum to carefully deliberate needed changes in Medicaid,” Wilson concluded.
Medicaid has surpassed Medicare and is now the largest public health insurance program in the United States serving 50 million people.
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