In a Jan. 14 letter to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, House and Senate Democrats blasted December 2007 action by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that denied Ohio’s request to extend health coverage to more children through Medicaid.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), Rep. Frank J. Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Sen. John D. Rockefeller, IV (D-WV), and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) expressed concern that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is endangering health coverage for low-income, uninsured American children with inappropriate changes to policies for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
The congressional leaders called the Dec. 20, 2007, denial of Ohio’s state plan amendment an action that exceeds the statutory authority of CMS and one that, if pursued elsewhere, will result in millions of children living without health care. “CMS can’t just make unilateral, under-the-radar changes that keep poor kids from getting the doctor’s visits and medicines they need,” said Baucus. “Congress made it clear in law that Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program should be there for lower-income kids living without insurance, and the changes made by CMS are threatening to kick children out of the doctor’s office and back into the dangerous world of the uninsured.” Read the letter.
