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Budget resolution slashes $10b in Medicaid spending

Physician Practice Advisor, May 4, 2005

In an effort to cut federal Medicaid spending by $10 billion, on Thursday Congress approved a budget resolution that slashes billions over a four-year period beginning in 2007, and establishes a new one-year Medicaid commission to recommend additional cost savings in the program. The resolution, which passed both the House and the Senate by slim margins, is nonbinding but sets guidelines for lawmakers deciding taxes and spending for federal fiscal year 2006.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said the Medicaid savings amount to roughly 1% of projected federal Medicaid spending of $1.1 trillion over the next five years.

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt called the budget "a proposal that puts us on the path toward stabilizing and strengthening Medicaid." U.S. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) said it was an example of Republicans' "misplaced priorities."

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