Senate Passes War Funding Package, Including Provisions On Medicaid, Birth Control Discounts

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Sexual Health / STDs;  Public Health
Article Date: 26 May 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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The Senate on Thursday passed a supplemental war funding bill that includes a provision that removes a disincentive to pharmaceutical companies to offer deeply discounted birth control to college health centers and certain non-profit family planning clinics, CQ Today reports. The bill also includes provisions preventing seven new Medicaid regulations from taking effect until April 1, 2009.

The drug pricing change is modeled after legislation (S 2347) introduced by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in November 2007 (Allen/Higa, CQ Today, 5/23). The cost of birth control at college clinics as well as about 400 community-based family planning clinics increased last year as the result of a change included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/6).

According to CQ Today, all Democrats present, as well as two independent and 25 Republican senators, voted in favor of the bill. The Senate passed a domestic spending amendment, which includes the Medicaid and birth control discount provisions, by a 75-22 vote (Higa, CQ Today, 5/23).

The seven Medicaid rule changes at issue aim to restrict services covered by some states' case management plans; limit Medicaid reimbursement to public hospitals; narrow federal Medicaid reimbursement eligibility for outpatient hospital services; bar federal reimbursement for transportation to school and school-based care for Medicaid-eligible children; restrict the types of "rehabilitative" services covered by federal funding; reduce federal Medicaid reimbursement for students at teaching hospitals; and limit taxes some states charge health providers (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/16).

The measure will go back to the House, where it passed last week, following a one-week Memorial Day recess, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, Democratic leaders in the House could face difficulty in advancing the measure because of the $10 billion in domestic spending added by the Senate. President Bush has vowed to veto the war funding measure if the domestic spending provisions are included although the measure's Republican support in the Senate "is a signal" the Senate could override a presidential veto, the Journal reports (Lueck, Wall Street Journal, 5/23).

Comments

According to CQ Today, some Senate Republicans were angered by the addition of the birth control discounts to the measure. "Sneaking a divisive provision into a war-spending bill that will help Planned Parenthood ... is politics as usual ... not change," John Hart, a spokesperson for Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), said. Hart added that Coburn examined ways to address the provision on Wednesday but that his concerns did not reach the Senate for floor debate on Thursday.

Advocates of the provision said that restoring the discounts could reduce the number of abortions among college students and low-income women. Angela Barranco -- a spokesperson for Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who introduced a House bill (HR 4054) to restore the discounts -- said the war funding bill is an appropriate vehicle for the provision, adding that it is "not the only domestic priority included in the emergency spending bill, and it's revenue-neutral" (Allen/Higa, CQ Today, 5/23).

According to CQ Today, the Senate's changes to the legislation aim to prevent a presidential veto. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said the changes "mak[e] it pretty hard" for Bush to veto the measure. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) added, "It was a veto-proof vote, so it will make the veto harder." However, Jim Nussle, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, issued a statement saying that the Senate-passed version of the legislation is still unacceptable to the administration (Higa, CQ Today, 5/23).

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