May 2006

Congress Poised to Appropriate Additional Pandemic Influenza Funding
On Tuesday, April 4th the Senate passed an amendment introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) adding $2.3 billion to an Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill for Pandemic Influenza preparedness funding.  The Emergency Supplemental bill contains funding for Katrina relief, the war in Iraq and several other measures for FY07.  Congress uses emergency supplemental appropriations bills to fund projects the same year that were not foreseen the previous year when Congress was setting a budget.

The House of Representatives has also passed an Emergency Supplemental bill which did not include funding for Pandemic Influenza.  However the White House has come out in strong support of the funding all but guaranteeing that the money will be put into a final version of the bill if it emerges from a conference committee.  This funding is really the second installment of the $7.1 billion promised for Pandemic Influenza preparedness by President Bush on November 2, 2005. 

Unfortunately, at press time, the Emergency Supplemental bill faced a potential veto from President Bush, the first of his presidency.  Bush has stated that the cost of the bill increased far too much.  The White House introduced a proposal costing $92.2 billion, covering hurricane relief and the war.  The Senate bill now stands at $106.5 billion and includes a host of other projects from farm aid to highway repairs.  The President has not objected to the attachment of the Pandemic Influenza money however and has stated he would sign a bill with his original $92.2 billion plus $2.3 billion for Influenza.

New Identification Requirements for Medicaid
On February 8, 2007 the President signed into law the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005.  Amongst other things, this bill made several changes to Medicaid in order to bring down the cost of that program.  One of these changes is the identification requirement needed in order to be eligible or requalify for Medicaid coverage.  According to the DRA, potential Medicaid recipients must show either proof of citizenship or naturalization; a birth certificate or passport; or state issued ID which required a birth certificate at issuance of the ID.  The new measure will take effect on July 1, 2006. 

While the measure is supposed to prevent illegal immigrants from qualifying for Medicaid, it has the potential to bar access to care for hundreds of thousands of American citizens.  Many senior citizens were not born in hospitals and thus did not receive birth certificates.  Numerous other low income Americans no longer have their birth certificates and never have applied for a passport.   For these individuals, the hassle and cost required to obtain a new birth certificate can be unduly burdensome.  Language in the Act permits the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to allow other documents to be used, however it remains to be seen if Administrator Mark McClellan will lower the standard set by Congress.

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