PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND CHRONIC ILLNESSES ARE BIG LOSERS IN BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S DECISION TO WITHDRAW MEDICAID MANAGED CARE PROTECTIONS

Washington, DC - The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) was extremely dismayed by the Bush administration's decision to withdraw and rewrite the Medicaid managed care final rule. The administration's decision will prevent people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, who are some of our nation's most vulnerable citizens, from receiving the vital consumer protections they were guaranteed by Congress in 1997.

"People with disabilities are the most vulnerable population in Medicaid managed care because they have the most expensive health care needs," said Bob Griss, Director of the Center on Disability and Health in Washington, DC and a co-chair of the CCD Health Task Force. "These regulations would have provided protections in Medicaid managed care to avoid many of the problems that have occurred when managed care plans have served people with disabilities in the past."

These regulations governing Medicaid managed care were mandated by Congress in the landmark Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA). These regulations, based in part on a congressionally mandated study on "Safeguards for Individuals with Special Health Care Needs in Medicaid Managed Care," were designed to protect Medicaid recipients, while allowing states to require certain categories of Medicaid beneficiaries to enroll in managed care without obtaining federal waivers. HHS spent three years working with stakeholders, including states and representatives of people with disabilities, in preparing this study and its recommendations are reflected positively in the final rule.

With the withdrawal of these regulations, Medicaid beneficiaries who have already waited four years to receive the protections Congress promised will remain vulnerable because of the inadequate efforts of many state Medicaid programs to protect their access to core Medicaid benefits.

"If the Bush Administration can get away with gutting consumer protections for low income persons with special health care needs in Medicaid managed care, the consumer protections that Congress has been debating in the Patients Bill of Rights are likely to be undermined as well," Griss said.

The CCD urges President Bush to reverse this decision and immediately implement these critically important regulations.

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Health Task Force is a coalition of over 50 national disability-related organizations working together to advocate for national health care policy from a disability perspective.

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