Thursday, February 10, 2005

FY 2006 Budget Hurts Mental Illness Programs Alert at the NAMI web site - "As a federal entitlement, Medicaid is not subject to the same annual appropriation by Congress that discretionary programs are. Nonetheless, the President's budget does include a number of recommended reductions for Medicaid that Congress is likely to consider as part of a budget "reconciliation" bill that will be taken up later this year. Overall, these reductions are projected to reduce federal Medicaid spending (i.e. federal matching funds for the states) by $20 billion over the next 5 years and $60 billion over the next decade. While full details of these reductions are not available yet, they appear to target reforms aimed at curbing methods that states have used to maximize federal matching funds..."