WASHINGTON — White House hopes of trimming the $200 billion Medicaid budget went head-to-head Wednesday with lawmakers’ wishes to keep money flowing to their states. The outcome wasn’t even close. The House, brushing off a veto threat, voted 349-62 to suspend for a year the implementation of seven cost-shaving regulations the administration said would reduce Medicaid spending by $13 billion over five years. Supporters of the bill were led by lawmakers such as Republican Tim Murphy, who said his state of Pennsylvania stood to lose $275 million in federal Medicaid money next year if the rules go into effect. The rules would have hurt delivery of services for long-term care facilities, schools serving children with mental or physical health needs, teaching hospitals and others relying on Medicaid’s programs for the poor, he said. Two-thirds of the Republicans joined every voting Democrat in backing the one-year moratorium, through next March, on the changes that the administration argues are needed to rectify waste and abuse in the state-federal partnership to provide health care to the poor. Supporters of the bill said the rules would merely shift financial burdens to the states at a time of economic distress while […]

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