NYT: Bush Seeks Big (more than $70 billion) Medicare and Medicaid Saving [View All]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/washington/02budget.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=8ac1990ffcd863d3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

February 2, 2007


Bush Seeks Big Medicare and Medicaid Saving
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — President Bush will ask Congress in his budget next week to squeeze more than $70 billion of savings from Medicare and Medicaid over the next five years, administration officials and health care lobbyists said Thursday.

The proposals, part of a White House plan to balance the budget by 2012, set the stage for a battle with Congress over entitlement spending. Even some administration officials say they cannot imagine approval of such large cutbacks in a Congress now controlled by Democrats.

Mr. Bush is also expected to propose changes in the Children’s Health Insurance Program to sharpen its focus on low-income families. The changes could reduce federal payments to states that cover children with family incomes exceeding twice the poverty level. Under federal guidelines, a family of four is considered poor if its annual income is less than $20,650.

The child health proposal, like those for Medicare and Medicaid, is likely to touch off a fight on Capitol Hill. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and other Democrats are seeking major expansions of the children’s health program, though they have not said how they would pay for the changes.

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