Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, outlined a comprehensive plan for reforming Medicaid yesterday at Heritage. Medicaid is a program for low-income Americans, one of the big three entitlements.
Hatch’s vision corresponds with the wishes of more than two dozen Republican governors, who wrote him this week to express their desire for greater flexibility with Medicaid. Democrats, including 41 of Hatch’s Senate colleagues, have publicly voiced their opposition to any meaningful reforms to the program offered by Republicans.
Before his Heritage speech, Hatch sat down to talk about why reform is needed, how he would do it and why it matters in the context of the debt crisis facing America. Hatch also used the opportunity to attack Obamacare, legislation that made the Medicaid problem even more challenging.