Bury Me Broken

States Rejecting Requirement to Pay Federally for Medicare

From the NY Times(registration):

States are openly resisting a provision of the Medicare law that requires them to pay billions of dollars a year to the federal government to help finance the cost of the new Medicare drug benefit.

Texas is leading the charge against the requirement, which states see as more onerous than the mandates imposed on them by the 2002 education law, the No Child Left Behind Act.

New Hampshire and Connecticut are reviewing the constitutionality of the "clawback" payments they are being required to pay to the federal government. And while the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the president are claiming that states will ultimately benefit but note the language used:

The Bush administration says states should save money under the 2003 law because the federal government will pay almost all drug costs for Medicaid recipients and most drug costs for retired state employees.

"Texas is going to come out ahead by many millions of dollars," said Gary R. Karr, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "That's the intent of the law, to save states money as Medicare picks up the cost of prescription drugs for those on Medicare and Medicaid.

An aside. The head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is Dr. Mark McClellan, from Texas whose son is White House press secretary Scott McClellan. I wonder if anyone that is not the former head of a corporation, not a former or present member of Project for a New American Century or a Texan. Nepotism on a whole nother level.

posted by niteskolar @ 3:21 AM