Medicaid cuts would hurt poorest, CHA official tells Senate panel

Published: 2005-07-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Medicaid cutbacks, coupled with state and federal reductions in other essential services such as housing and social services, "could be devastating" to the nation's poor, the head of the board of trustees of the Catholic Health Association told a Senate committee June 28. "We urge Congress to take a broad look at the overall welfare of those in this country with the greatest needs and the least resources, and offer solutions that will address their needs," Providence Sister Karin Dufault told the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Sister Karin, vice president for mission leadership at Providence Health System in Seattle, began a one-year term chairing the CHA board earlier in June. Sen. Gordon H. Smith, R-Ore., committee chairman, convened the hearing to determine how to make the $10 billion reduction in the Medicaid budget mandated by the Senate Finance Committee and to study ways "to improve and reform this vital program." Some 54 million elderly, disabled, chronically ill and poor Americans receive their health coverage through Medicaid.

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