The Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, July 8, at 10:15 a.m. in room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “Medicaid at 50: Strengthening and Sustaining the Program." Witnesses from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Government Accountability Office, and Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission will testify.
The Medicaid program turns 50 this year and is now the world’s largest health insurance program. As part of the committee’s ongoing effort to strengthen the program, ensuring it is able to deliver on its core promise of providing care for the nation’s most vulnerable populations, members will discuss Medicaid’s current and foreseeable challenges, including budget sustainability and meaningful access to care for patients.
The Medicaid program has seen many changes in recent years-such as the growth of managed care, expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the move towards more home and community-based services, and continued growth in the provision of long-term care services. It is important for the committee to better understand how the growing role of Medicaid impacts federal and state budgets, delivery system reforms, and access to health care for millions of Americans. As the committee outlined in its views of the president’s FY 2016 budget proposals, by 2025, the Medicaid program will cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion each year. This hearing can also help inform the committee about possible actions which may be needed to help strengthen and sustain the Medicaid program so it is able to provide meaningful access to the most vulnerable patients for decades to come.as they are posted.
