Washington Protection & Advocacy System

Pursuing justice on behalf of people with disabilities on matters related to their human, legal, and civil rights. 

Promoting Dignity, Equality and Self-Determination.

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The administration of George W. Bush is promoting a plan they have called "Medicaid modernization."  The President claims that his plan will increase flexibility to cash-strapped states who are desperately trying to find ways to balance their budgets.  The "flexibility" produced, however, will not bring good news to people with disabilities.  The Bush plan offers some temporary relief to states, but then put limits on Medicaid spending in the future.  

This is a major change in the philosophy behind Medicaid.  Medicaid is designed to be an "entitlement," meaning that those people who are eligible for services are able to get all the Medicaid services they need.  This makes sense for a society that believes that everyone deserves equal opportunity - it gives the people in our society who need assistance the help they need to become self-sufficient.  At least that is how it is supposed to work.  

Bush wants Federal Government to Spend Less on Health Care 

Bush's plan turns Medicaid from an entitlement program, into a "block grant" program.  In a block grant program, the federal government gives a set amount of money to the states who decide how they want to spend that money.  In many ways, this is the exact opposite of an entitlement program, where people who are eligible for services are always able to receive those services.  If the Bush Medicaid block grant proposal is approved by Congress, this would no longer be true.  Congress would decide at the beginning of the year how much Medicaid money each state would receive, and once that money was gone, Medicaid services would stop.  

Many advocacy groups are fighting the Bush proposal.  To learn more about the nation-wide efforts to stop the President's Medicaid reform plan, try the links below.