The nation's governors urged President Bush yesterday not to shift Medicaid costs to the states to reduce the federal deficit.
The bipartisan plea came six days after another letter to Bush from the health care industry, asking him not to propose carving savings from Medicaid or Medicare. Medicaid provides health coverage for the poor and the disabled, while Medicare helps cover the medical costs of the elderly and the disabled.
 
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A White House spokesman would not comment on whether Bush will propose savings from either program.
Both letters underscore the political hurdles the White House faces in paying for its priorities in the 2006 budget it is to unveil in February. Bush wants to cut record federal deficits in half, reduce taxes, reshape Social Security, and finance the war in Iraq, anti-terrorism efforts at home and other priorities.
Medicaid, expected to cost the federal government about $190 billion next year, is paid for jointly by Washington and the states. State officials have complained in recent years that their financial burden for the program has mushroomed, thanks to growing caseloads and Medicaid spending for patients in nursing homes.
"We agree that maintaining the status quo in Medicaid is not acceptable," said the letter from the National Governors Association. "However, it is equally unacceptable in any deficit reduction strategy to simply shift federal costs to states."
The letter said Medicaid expenditures average 22 percent of state budgets, causing "a strain on funding for other crucial state responsibilities."
