Political row over US Medicaid reform ideas

An early political tussle between the new Democratic party majority in the US Congress and the White House seems likely, following the publication of a report which recommends giving individual states more freedom to set benefit levels and eligibility. The proposal comes from a commission that was tasked by Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to find ways of improving Medicare and Medicaid. Among the ideas put forward are the placement by the states of the sickest Medicaid beneficiaries on Medicaid Advantage plans, copying the Medicare Part D system. Democrats oppose this, on the grounds that comprehensive health care could be denied.