For
Immediate Release: March 17, 2005
Contact: Chris Burley, Bazelon Center, (202)
467-5730 x 133
Bazelon Center Applauds Senate Rejection of “Irresponsible” Medicaid
Cuts
Washington, DC—A national advocacy group for the rights of adults and
children with mental illnesses today applauded passage of an amendment that
would strike
Medicaid cuts from the Senate budget resolution and form an independent
commission on Medicaid reform. The following is a prepared statement by Chris
Koyanagi, policy director at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, on the
Senate’s 52-48 approval of the Smith-Bingaman amendment:
“
Today’s vote represents a rational approach to Medicaid reform and
a rejection of indiscriminate and irresponsible cuts. The Smith-Bingaman
amendment will be a critical line of defense in the fight against the slash-and-burn
budget resolution supported by the House leadership.
“House opposition to the Smith-Bingaman amendment is deeply troubling.
Cutting Medicaid without careful consideration of the consequences would threaten
access to healthcare for tens of thousands of Americans with mental illnesses.
Medicaid funds more than one-fifth of all public and private spending on mental
health services in America, financing about half of the public mental health
system’s costs.
“Only half the Americans who need mental health treatment now receive
it, and many who can access needed services get them through Medicaid. Simply
picking numbers out of the air to force reductions in Medicaid spending will
only make an already bad situation even worse.”
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The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a nationally recognized leader
on disability rights law, having played a central role in legal victories for
people with disabilities in the 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. and 2004 Tennessee v.
Lane Supreme Court decisions. The Center engages in ongoing legal advocacy
to fight discrimination against people with disabilities.
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