WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama on Monday proposed more aggressive deficit reductions through savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs than the White House put forward just five months ago.
The president's budget proposal for fiscal year 2013 seeks a total of $364 billion in healthcare savings over 10 years, which the White House hopes to achieve by cutting Medicare and Medicaid payments to healthcare providers, raising costs on future Medicare beneficiaries and cracking down on waste and fraud. Medicare is for the elderly and Medicaid is for the poor.
The savings total represents an increase of $44 billion, or about 14 percent, from the $320 billion reduction the White House proposed last September as a special congressional "super committee" deliberated over how to tame the nation's ballooning debt.
Medicare is already facing a modest spending reduction under automatic cuts implemented last fall when the super committee failed to reach its own deficit-reduction deal.
The White House said its new proposals would extend by two years the solvency of Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which finances hospitalization benefits. Government forecasts released last year said the fund would be exhausted in 2024.
The Obama budget plan, intended to take effect when the federal government's 2013 fiscal year begins on October 1, is not expected to win approval in Congress.
But the document lays out in detail many of Obama's campaign priorities as he seeks re-election in November. For the fourth year in a row, the annual U.S. budget deficit is expected to exceed $1 trillion. The White House projects an easing of the shortfall the following year.
Medicare is a hot-button issue for senior citizens who comprise key voting blocs in important swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Republicans started to pounce on Obama's budget proposal before it was released to the public, saying it would do nothing to avoid a future financial crisis for Medicare.
"The president has failed to offer a single serious idea to save Social Security and is the only president in modern history to cut Medicare benefits for seniors," Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in a statement on Monday.
The budget also calls for reducing benefits for wealthier Medicare beneficiaries, modifying Medicare deductibles, charging co-pays for home health services and imposing surcharges for private insurance plans that cover Medicare expenses. The changes would affect new beneficiaries beginning in 2017.
The budget also proposes steps to streamline Medicaid's financing and reimbursement policies.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Vicki Allen)
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