I have searched the last two weeks worth of posts under stories and diaries for "Medicaid", "school medicaid", "bush medicaid" and "bush school", "700 million" and found NOTHING ON THIS
Un.be.lieve.able. Talk about hiding the bodies in a Friday dump ....
The Associated Press
Friday, December 21, 2007; 5:48 PM
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration issued a new rule Friday that eliminates Medicaid reimbursement for certain transportation and administrative tasks undertaken by schools on behalf of students with disabilities.
Stealing money from disabled kids is the sort of underhanded dealing we have come to expect from the Corrupt Bastards Club, but this Grinch-like assault on health care for disabled kids leaves me slackjawed. Reagan's declaring ketchup a vegetable seem quaint by comparison.
As one comment in the thread below noted, "Kick them while they're down" is now the official healthcare policy of this administration. Merry Christmas
A wide range of medical services are furnished to students in schools. Speech and physical therapy are typical examples. Medicaid, the government's health insurance program for the poor, helps pay for those activities for low-income children. It will continue to pay. However, the new rule will restrict when schools can bill the federal government for clerical duties associated with providing health care.
For example, schools can no longer expect Medicaid reimbursement for the planning of student immunizations. Schools also won't get paid for transporting students getting speech or physical therapy to school or back home.
The savings to the federal government is projected at $3.6 billion over the next five years.
3.6 Billion....sounds like a lot. And it is. Until you compare it to what it will buy (about a week of war in Iraq), or you realize Medicaid will spend about $1.2 TRILLION over that same time period. So this savings over five years accounts for a fraction of a percent of the total Medicaid budget. Adding insult to injury is the notion this is cost neutral. For example, no mention is made of the cost of failed immunizations. I wonder what part of eye exams won't get covered now as well.
Think about what it would mean to suddenly be told you have to find money for administering immunizations throughout your school district. Imagine what it would cost to have to suddenly find money to administer vision exams, or to get material educating families (often in multiple languages) about the importance of vaccinations, eyecare, dental care, etc. This is outrageous.
But it gets worse. Unlike the recent "we're protecting Iraqi money here so we don't have to protect it over there" nonsense, this betrayal was recognized and addressed by Congress before the deed was done.
Lawmakers were so concerned about the rule that they passed legislation this past week that placed a six-month moratorium on it.
More than 1,200 people wrote in to comment on the proposal - most opposed. School principals and superintendents said that the loss of money could mean that schools will have to cut back on other programs. For example, one opponent said that Medicaid reimbursement allows staff to attend workshops and purchase "needed technology and materials to better educate our children."
So there you have it. The people explained the need. The amount is tiny in comparison to the benefits it provides. Congress pre-emptively blocked this cut back with specific legislation but that didn't prevent the Bush administration's henchmen in the Medicaid office from declaring most of the comments validated their concern that schools were improperly using Medicaid funding to pay for services "that are clearly educational in nature."
Get it now? Protecting the health of poor kids using public schools is not something the Federal government should be wasting money on. Instead, they should be protecting the wealth of rich contractors living off of public funds.
Compared to that, a lump of coal would actually be a good thing.