Senate Passes $10 Billion In Health Cuts

The U.S. Senate passed a sweeping budget bill Thursday approving more than $10 billion in cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid health programs over the next five years.The cuts mostly spare beneficiaries of the two huge programs of any reductions in benefits or access to health care. But Medicaid benefit reductions are still likely to be on the table in a House version of the budget bill expected to be released next week.The bulk of savings in the bill comes from cuts to Medicare subsidies to insurance companies and an increase in Medicaid prescription-drug rebates that drug manufacturers must pay to states.The bill also includes $1.9 billion worth of emergency Medicaid benefits for victims of Hurricane Katrina living in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.Political groups have long worried about potential cuts to health benefits as Congress moves to shave tens of billions of dollars from federal spending. Though the Senate bill mostly avoided such cuts, it did attract debates on several contentious issues surrounding Medicare.

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