Tagged: Medicaid

A liberal think-tank closely allied with the Obama administration is proposing a health care spending plan it says could save hundreds of billions of dollars in entitlement spending without hurting middle- and low-income patients.

After a shaky few years, President Obama's health care legacy looks secure.

His health overhaul law barely made it through Congress and to his desk. Then there were the legal challenges, launched when the ink of his signature was barely dry, that were resolved by a surprising Supreme Court ruling in June.

Obstetricians, gynecologists and emergency room doctors will be shut out of the higher Medicaid pay that primary care doctors will start collecting in January.

The Obama administration made the ruling late Thursday.

Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid rates for primary care doctors will soon be on par with what Medicare pays. The overhaul law included the hike to encourage doctors to see the larger number of patients who will be covered by a Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid is already the nation's largest health insurance program in terms of number of people covered: It serves nearly 1 in 5 Americans. Yet at the same time it's putting increasing strain on the budgets of states, which pay about 40 percent of its costs.