News
LEAnet 2nd Annual Conference a Success - Members Focused on Continuing to Prevent Planned Medicaid Cuts by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS)
May 9-11, 2007 found over 100 LEAnet members at the 2nd Annual LEAnet Conference held in Washington, D.C. The primary focus of the event was continuing the fight to prevent cuts to federal Medicaid reimbursement for administrative and transportation services for public school children with special needs. Cuts have been proposed by the CMS and fended off through the efforts of LEAnet and other concerned organizations and legislative leaders.
GET's Medicaid consultant, Greg Morris, was one of many panelists and presenters at the conference who spoke about key federal issues affecting Medicaid in the schools. Issues discussed and legislative updates provided to participants included:
- Honorable John Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and sponsor of the House Version of the Protecting Children's Health in Schools Act of 2007, told members that he expects the bill to move out of the House with little opposition.
- Senior staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are working with the office of Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY) to generate a Dear Colleague letter.
- Staff in the office of Representative Dave Camp (R-MI) indicated that the Republican caucus had discussed the possibility of a two year moratorium on any CMS action involving the cuts in federal Medicaid reimbursement for administrative and transportation issues.
- A large delegation of Illinois LEAnet members, including the Chicago Public Schools lobbyist, met with several members of the Illinois delegation, including Representatives Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D), Ray LaHood (R), and the senior staff of Senator Durbin. The Illinois Congressional delegation is working on building state-wide unanimous support for opposition to the cuts, including support for the Dingell bill.
- A number of LEAnet contacts have developed support for inclusion of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-MA.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell's (D-MI) "Protecting Children’s Health in School Act " language into the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) reauthorization. LEAnet will continue to pursue the course of action.
- While last year most of the professional lobbyists attending the conference gave LEAnet's grass roots activities little chance of success and viewed the "Medicaid for All" bill as a slim possibility, this year's conference saw a significant change in that attitude. The collective new opinion is that LEAnet has been successful in holding CMS off for nearly a year and that we are building support that could approach a veto-proof passage of "Protecting Children’s Health in School Act.”
Conference participants left the event with valuable information and were re-energized for the fight to protect Medicaid in schools. For more information on the conference and LEAnet activities, please visit www.theleanet.com.