WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Pat Roberts and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) were joined by 39 other Senators in sending letter to the Budget Committee urging the Committee to refrain from including Medicare or Medicaid cuts for hospitals in the 2008 budget resolution.

The following is the text of the letter, sent to Budget Committee Chairman, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Ranking Member, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), dated March 1, 2007:

"We are writing to express our support for including provisions in the FY08 Budget Resolution to strengthen the Medicare program for seniors and protect access to hospital care for Medicaid beneficiaries.

"Specifically, we urge the Committee to demonstrate its commitment to the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the seniors, disabled and children served by those programs, by opposing hospital cuts in the FY08 Budget Resolution. The nation’s full service community hospitals, which serve as the health care safety net for so many vulnerable citizens, are under large and growing cost pressures. Rising numbers of uninsured, new and costly pharmaceuticals and technologies, labor shortages, and preparing for pandemics and terrorist threats are just some of the many pressures hospitals face and which our communities expect hospitals to address.

"And yet, federal payments are not keeping pace with the costs of responding to these challenges. Earlier this month, Congress’ independent, nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) reported that Medicare payments are falling further and further below the minimal costs of care for our seniors. MedPAC estimates Medicare hospital operating margins of negative 3.1 percent in 2005 and projects that those margins will fall to negative 5.4 percent in 2007, the lowest Medicare margins recorded. This trend is simply unsustainable, and it is unacceptable. In response, MedPAC voted to recommend to Congress that hospitals receive a full inflation update in 2008. We hope you agree with MedPAC and both include an inflation update for hospitals, and refrain from recommending any cuts in hospital spending in Medicare or Medicaid, which has even lower operating margins."

Senator Roberts is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.