Administration opposes challenges to Medicaid cuts

In many states, health care providers, dentists, hospitals, pharmacies, and nursing homes have been hit hard with recent Medicaid budget cuts. The Obama administration has told the Supreme Court that neither health care providers nor Medicaid beneficiaries can sue the state regarding budget cuts, even if access to health care is compromised for Medicaid recipients. Federal laws demand that Medicaid rates must be “sufficient to enlist enough providers,” but the Justice Department calls this promise “broad and nonspecific.” This loosly defined policy has made it easy for federal health officials to cut budgets in favor of other policy goals, such as reducing costs. Some states have made devistating cuts that have made it nearly impossible for beneficiaries to find doctors.  In response, providers in states such as California have launched lawsuits under the supremacy clause of the constitution, claiming that budget cuts have caused threats to “much-needed medical care,” and many find it “appalling” that providers and beneficiaries do not have the right to directly sue states over the seemingly obvious neglect to fund sufficient care for Medicaid recipients.

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