Political battle looms over US CMS cuts

A new season of political battles over the future of US health care spending has opened with the call by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California), to resist a final attempt by President George W Bush to restrict spending by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The President's proposals are outlined in the draft budget for fiscal 2009.

Rep Pelosi said: "the President is proposing to once again slash health care coverage for seniors and low-income working Americans. The President's cuts are exactly the wrong medicine when the cost of health care and the number of uninsured continue to rise and families are feeling economically insecure."

One battleground will be the subsidy paid by the federal government for Medicare Advantage plans. Although Democrats may approve of at least one feature of the premium health care insurance schemes, namely that brand-name drugs are available to seniors in the "Donut hole" coverage gap (Marketletters passim), the fact that they involve switching from "traditional Medicare" to a privately-managed health plan runs counter to the party's general support for universal insurance with more centralized provision.