TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS TO THE DEFICIT REDUCTION ACT (DRA)

On Friday, December 8th, the 109th Congress adjourned, but before leaving town, members made some technical corrections to last year's Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) in the tax bill, including:

• It spelled out that Medicaid recipients below 100 percent of the federal poverty line are not subject to most of the new cost-sharing requirements of the DRA. These cost-sharing requirements pertain to those beneficiaries (including children) with family incomes over 150 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), or$24,900 for a family of 3 in 2006. Under the DRA states may charge unlimited premiums and may charge co-payments up to 20 percent of the cost of medical services. Co-payment limits are set at 10 percent of the cost of the service for beneficiaries (including children) with incomes between 100 percent and 150 percent of the FPL. As drafted, beneficiaries below poverty seemed to have no protections from premiums or cost sharing amounts for services; however, given the protections for beneficiaries at higher incomes, this policy appeared inconsistent. The technical correction clarified that the under 100% FPL group is exempt from cost sharing.
• It clarified that the total cap on cost-sharing applies to the family, not on a per-person basis within a family.
• Finally, the bill extends new exemptions from the citizenship documentation requirement to children receiving adoption or foster care services and to recipients of Social Security disability benefits. 

-Adapted from:www.familiesusa.org/issues/medicaid/2006-lame-duck-congress.html (retrieved 12/26/06) and“Deficit Reduction Act Of 2005: Implications For Medicaid”, The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Kaiser Family Foundation, February, 2006, retrieved from: http://kff.org/medicaid/upload/7465.pdf, 12/06

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