House adds health measures to war spending bill

Schools, hospitals and nursing homes would get a reprieve from cuts in their Medicaid payments under a House bill to pay for the war in Iraq. In the past two years, the Bush administration has proposed seven Medicaid regulations that it projected would save $13 billion over five years. States and healthcare providers said the proposals would have shifted costs to the states and created new hardships for the poor. One rule would have prohibited Medicaid funding to provide medical education at teaching hospitals. Of the seven changes proposed by the Bush adminstration, only one stays in effect: One that limits which services Medicaid will pay for in hospital outpatient settings.