Democrats summon advocates to plot strategy on Medicaid

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are lining up the troops for a concerted attack against Republicans’ plan to turn Medicaid into a block-grant program and slash its funding by $750 billion.

Leadership staff will brief a wide array of advocates Tuesday afternoon, The Hill has learned, and seek their support as bipartisan budget talks continue. 

Republicans are demanding massive cuts to the state-federal health program for low-income Americans as part of negotiations on increasing the debt ceiling.

An invitation to advocates obtained by The Hill offers the strongest evidence yet that Democrats intend to fight proposed Medicaid cuts, such as the plan to turn the program into a block grant as called for under the GOP budget adopted by the House last month. 

The invitation also criticizes global spending caps and a Republican effort to allow states to drop beneficiaries off the rolls ahead of the 2014 Medicaid expansion called for under the healthcare reform law.

Still, many advocates remain worried that Democrats will end up agreeing to significant cuts to Medicaid in an effort to look tough on deficit reduction, especially since they’ve already reduced Medicare spending by $500 billion as part of the healthcare reform law. It’s not clear whether congressional Democrats will also ask advocates to agree to specific cuts during the meeting, or if they’ll poll the audience to see what’s acceptable.

Democratic health staffers on the Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce committees have periodically held such meetings when major Medicaid legislation is being discussed. Leadership staff from both chambers are also expected to attend, as well as staffers from several governor’s offices.

Here’s the invitation: 

“The Health Democratic staff from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, leadership staff in the House and Senate, and Democratic Governors’ offices invite you to a meeting on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 […] to discuss threatened changes to the Medicaid program, including global spending caps, a block grant, the loss of the maintenance of effort requirement (the Medicaid MOE), and other cuts to the Medicaid program that may be contemplated during budget negotiations.”