Casey, DiRocco blast GOP Medicaid cuts for disabled students

May 19--U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Thursday lashed out at Republicans for their health care bill, which he said would slash $880 billion from Medicaid, including funds that help students with disabilities.

For school districts, that would mean a 30 percent cut in funding for those students.

In a conference call with reporters, Casey said the bill would decimate Medicaid. The Scranton Democrat said Republican senators now are working on a Senate version of the bill behind closed doors.

Former Lewisburg Area School District Superintendent Mark DiRocco, now executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, and Medicaid expert Andy Schneider joined Casey in the call.

DiRocco said children make up 46 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries. He said funds for those students help pay for services such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, school psychologists, school nurses and speech and language therapy.

"They deserve their chance at a fulfilling life," DiRocco said.

He noted, though, if the cuts remain in a final bill that becomes law, school districts still would provide the services to disabled students. However, the districts would raise taxes, make significant cuts in programs or "likely both."

"Why the federal government would want to take away these foundations and support is beyond me," DiRocco said. "This back door cut to public education could be devastating to schools."

Schneider, a professor at Georgetown Center for Children & Families who has worked on Medicaid as a policy expert for the past 30 years, said Medicaid is the largest health insurer in the country for children, most of whom have disabilities.

Of the 77 million people on Medicaid, 34 million are children, said Schneider, who served as counsel to the Subcommittee on Health and Environment of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and helped design major policy changes in the Medicaid program, including extending health coverage to millions of children.

Casey said the House health care legislation transfers money from the cuts to restoring tax breaks for the wealthy, whose taxes were increased to help pay for the Affordable Care Act.

"The rich were paying more," Casey said. "I thought that was appropriate for 20 million more people to have health care benefits."

He didn't know how different the Senate bill would be from the House version.

"So far the Senate process is really bad," Casey said. "Twelve or 13 senators are in the room. There are no women (senators) in the room."

He anticipates a vote in the second half of June.

Email comments to [email protected]. Follow Sylvester on Twitter @JoepSylvester.

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