Perry’s suggestion could hurt Medicaid

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has spent a lot of time campaigning on the promise of giving states the power to control Medicaid through the use of block grants. The governor should realize that using block grants could destroy Medicaid at the expense of people in need.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office wrote in the analysis to the Ryan budget plan that block grants “would probably require states to decrease payments to Medicaid providers, reduce eligibility for Medicaid, provide less extensive coverage to beneficiaries, or pay more themselves than would be the case under current law.”

This would be devastating to the millions of Americans who need Medicaid the most, including nearly 30 million children. Don't allow millions of children to suffer so that the states have a little more power that they did not have before.

Lois McDaniel

Cedar Rapids