By Robert Pear
New York Times
Copyright 2008 New York Times
WASHINGTON — In his new budget, to be unveiled Monday, President Bush will call for large cuts in the growth of Medicare, far exceeding what he proposed last year, and he will again seek major savings in Medicaid, according to administration officials and budget documents.
Overall, the 2009 budget is likely to be the first $3 trillion spending request by any president.
Health care savings are a crucial part of Bush’s plan to put the nation on track to achieve a budget surplus by 2012. But before then, the officials said Wednesday, the White House anticipates higher deficits in 2008 and 2009, reflecting the current weakness of the economy and the cost of a stimulus package.
Bush’s budget will not seek money for another full year of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials said the administration would request $70 billion for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That would be enough to continue combat operations for several months, until the next president takes office.
Bush has repeatedly said that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid, which dwarf spending for lawmakers’ pet projects, are unsustainable. The two health programs account for nearly one-fourth of all federal spending, and their combined cost - $627 billion last year - is expected to double in a decade.
Budget documents show that Bush will propose legislative changes in Medicare to save $6 billion in the next year and $91 billion from 2009 to 2013. In his last budget, by contrast, his legislative proposals would have saved $4 billion in the first year and $65.6 billion over five years.
Bush’s budget also takes aim at Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income people. He would pare $1.2 billion from Medicaid next year and nearly $14 billion over five years.
Most of the Medicare savings in the president’s budget would be achieved by reducing the annual update in federal payments to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, ambulances and home care agencies.
The budget would not touch payments to insurance companies for private Medicare Advantage plans, even though many Democrats and independent experts say those plans are overpaid.
President Bush’s budget will not seek money for another full year of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials said the administration would request $70 billion for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.