USCCB - (SDWP) - 2006 Federal Budget Impact on the Poor: Housing and Medicaid

2006 Federal Budget Impact on the Poor: Housing and Medicaid

Bishop Skylstad, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote to Congress earlier this year. “As pastors, we believe that a fundamental moral measure of our nation’s budget policy is whether it enhances or undermines the lives and dignity of those most in need Sadly, political pressure frequently has left poor children and families missing in the national debate and without a place at the table. Our nation needs a genuinely bipartisan commitment to focus on the common good of all and on the special needs of the poor and vulnerable in particular. These are tough times. There are few easy choices. But there are some ‘right’ choices. In a time of war, mounting deficits, and growing needs, our nation’s leaders must ensure that there are adequate resources to protect people who are poor and vulnerable both at home and around the world.”

Here are just two of the very important areas where Congress will have to make tough decisions that will determine how we as a nation meet the needs of poor children and families.

Housing and Community Development

The Catholic bishops support a national housing policy that proves quality housing for low.income families, the elderly, and other vulnerable people. While churches, community groups, the private sector, and state and local government have a role, there is no substitute for an involved and committed federal government to meet our common responsibility for safe and affordable housing.

The President’s 2006 budget proposes to cut at least $3 billion in funding for HUD programs. There are deep cuts in programs that serve the lowest income families and individuals, including public housing, Section 811 housing for people with disabilities, fair housing, Housing for Persons With AIDS, HOME formula grants, and Native American Housing Block Grants. Unless Congress provides more funding for current HUD programs than requested, fewer people will have access to safe, affordable housing.

The 2006 budget eliminates the $4.1 billion Community Development Block Grant (including Section 108 loan guarantees, Brownfields, Enterprise Zone /Enterprise Communities, and HUD's office of rural housing and economic development). Most people in low income communities can name worthwhile projects made possible by CDBG: houses rehabbed, senior centers opened, child care centers built, parks created, water and sewer services extended to poor neighborhoods, and much more.

To the Catholic bishops, housing conditions cannot be separated from the surrounding environment. City services, education, the types of services funded by CDBG are critical factors in the creation and maintenance of housing and the neighborhoods that support them.

Urge congress to oppose cuts in the funding of HUD’s programs that serve extremely low-income families, especially the Community Development Block Grant program

Unlike last year, the Administration does not single out housing vouchers for funding cuts and actually proposes what on first glance would be a small increase for Section 8 compared to the sharp reduction in the percentage of vouchers funded in 2005. However, the “new” money must cover nearly double the number of tenant protection vouchers (“vouchering out” public housing units), renewal of expiring contracts, the Family Self Sufficiency program, and administrative fees. Finally, the Administration proposes to change the method of
funding housing vouchers that would move the program closer to a block grant without full consideration of its effect on poor families. The Bishops’ Conference opposes changes to the housing voucher program which could force public housing agencies to choose among three unacceptable options: cut families from the program; charge higher rents to low-income families already struggling to make ends meet; or transfer vouchers from poorer to higher income families.

Urge Congress to oppose changing the targeting provisions of the rental housing voucher program that would disadvantage extremely low income people.

Medicaid

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently worked for access to affordable health care for all, in a way that reflects a priority concern for the poor. Catholic teaching insists that access to adequate health care is a basic human right, necessary for the development and maintenance of life, and respectful of human dignity.

Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) serve as our nation’s health care safety net, providing health care coverage for over 52 million people, including children and adults in low-income families, the elderly and the disabled – many of the sickest and the poorest in our nation.

Without Medicaid and SCHIP, the vast majority of these families and individuals would be uninsured. They cannot afford to buy private insurance. Low-income workers usually are not offered or cannot afford insurance through their employers; and many policies exclude people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. In the absence of these programs, most of those covered by Medicaid and SCHIP would be added to the 45 million Americans who currently have no source of health insurance at all.

In 2003, Medicaid provided coverage to:

25 million children
14 million adults (mostly low-income working parents)
5 million seniors
8 million people with disabilities

In its budget outline for 2006, the Administration has proposed to reduce federal spending on Medicaid by a total of $60 billion over ten years, by targeting possible fraud and inefficieny. Of this amount, $15 billion of the savings would be reinvested in the program, mostly for Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment outreach and coverage for the resulting enrollees. Concerns about fraud or inefficiency in Medicaid call for Congress and the Administration to carefully review the program to identify where improvements can be made, independent of the budget process. Policy makers should be very careful not to simply shift costs to the states through budget cuts, caps or other mechanisms.

The Administration’s budget also proposes, without giving specific details, that states be allowed to come up with ways to cover more people under Medicaid, but only if they can do so without increasing the amount of federal funding they receive.

Our nation has long been committed to meeting the basic health care and long-term service needs of low-income Americans through Medicaid, a system of shared federal and state responsibility. We believe this shared responsibility should continue. We urge Congress to:

Oppose cuts in Medicaid funding in the budget resolution, which could have a negative impact on the poor and vulnerable
Maintain the fundamental nature of Medicaid as a guarantee to health care for the most vulnerable among us
If there are changes to Medicaid and SCHIP that result in savings, reinvest those dollars in the program to protect health care for the poor and vulnerable

CONTACT: Thom Shellabarger 202 541-3189 tshellabarger@usccb.org. or Kathy Curran 202-541-3188 kcurran@usccb.org