Sen. Max Baucus Holds a Hearing On the Fiscal Year 2008 Department of Health and Human Services Budget

U.S. SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE HOLDS A HEARING ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2008 BUDGET FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

FEBRUARY 7, 2007

SPEAKERS: SEN. MAX BAUCUS, D-MONT. CHAIRMAN SEN. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, D-W.VA. SEN. KENT CONRAD, D-N.D. SEN. JEFF BINGAMAN, D-N.M. SEN. JOHN KERRY, D-MASS. SEN. BLANCHE LINCOLN, D-ARK. SEN. RON WYDEN, D-ORE. SEN. CHARLES E. SCHUMER, D-N.Y. SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW, D-MICH. SEN. MARIA CANTWELL, D-WASH. SEN. KEN SALAZAR, D-COLO.

SEN. CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, R-IOWA RANKING MEMBER SEN. ORRIN G. HATCH, R-UTAH SEN. TRENT LOTT, R-MISS. SEN. OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, R-MAINE SEN. JON KYL, R-ARIZ. SEN. CRAIG THOMAS, R-WYO. SEN. GORDON H. SMITH, R-ORE. SEN. JIM BUNNING, R-KY. SEN. MICHAEL D. CRAPO, R-IDAHO SEN. PAT ROBERTS, R-KAN.

WITNESSES: SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES MICHAEL O. LEAVITT

[*] BAUCUS: The committee will come to order. The prophet Ezekiel advised his nation's leaders: Woe to the shepherds of Israel. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken.

Mr. Secretary, you're with the Department of Health and Human Services, and we here at the Committee of Finance have a similar duty. We have a duty to be good shepherds. We have a duty to strengthen the weak, to heal the sick, and to bind up those who are broken.

The budget is where we do that. The budget answers the questions, will we strengthen the nation's poor? Will we heal children? And will we care for the nation's elderly?

This year, Congress has a once-in-a-decade opportunity to strengthen the health of our nation's children, improving and expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, is the committee's top health care priority this year. Here are my five priorities for SCHIP.

First, we must give SCHIP enough money to maintain coverage for those whom it already serves.

Second, we must work to reach the 6 million uninsured children now left behind -- those who are eligible for SCHIP or Medicaid, but not enrolled.

Third, we must support state efforts to use SCHIP to cover more children.

Fourth, we must improve the quality of health care under SCHIP.

And fifth, we must not increase the number of Americans without health insurance.

The administration's budget would not achieve these goals. The budget for SCHIP is not that of a good shepherd. The budget provides $5 billion in new funding for SCHIP. That's only about one-third of what we will likely need just to maintain current services.

Equally troubling are the budget's policy changes. Many states are employing SCHIP to expand access to all children. But the administration's policies would undermine these efforts. The budget would do so by lowering funding rates for children and families with incomes more than twice the poverty level.

Today a family of three with an income of twice the poverty level makes a little more than $34,000 a year. But an average family health care plan costs about $12,000. The budget would put health coverage out of reach for low-income working families. In fact, the budget would tell them that they should spend more than one-third of their income on health insurance.

The budget's proposals threaten the remarkable success of the SCHIP program. If Congress were to enact these proposals, more than 1 million children and 600,000 of their parents, caretakers and other low-income adults could lose health coverage.

In my own state of Montana, there are more than 37,000 uninsured children -- across the nation, nearly 9 million. But the administration's proposals would do little to help states respond to this growing crisis. It says to states like Montana, who are trying to do the right thing and extend coverage, we aren't with you.

And by shortchanging SCHIP on funds and lowering the federal share for children above 200 percent of poverty, this budget could actually contribute to even more children becoming uninsured.

The administration's budget would also make it harder to heal the nation's poor. I have deep concerns about the budget's more than $26 billion in Medicaid cuts. The budget calls for $14 billion in legislative changes to Medicaid.

That's twice the size of the $7 billion in Medicaid cuts that Congress nearly approved in the last Congress after a bitter fight in the Deficit Reduction Act. Cutting Medicaid again so much so soon is too big a hit for this critical safety net program.

And the administration would make it harder to care for the nation's elderly. The budget offers drastic across-the-board cuts in Medicare payments to providers. But those cuts fall...

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