Officials Testify on Disaster Plans

Two Bush administration Cabinet members yesterday acknowledged gaps in the capability of U.S. hospitals to deal with a mass-casualty terrorist attack or other disaster, but they said a congressional effort to block pending Medicaid cuts will not fix the problem.

Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said lawmakers could target funds at the shortcomings more directly, such as by financing the stockpiling of hospital beds, ventilator units or medicines, if needed.

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Leavitt and Chertoff spoke two days after the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), released a survey showing that hospitals in seven major U.S. cities would be overwhelmed in case of a Madrid-scale attack. In that incident, 191 people were killed and as many as 270 patients were sent to a single hospital within hours.

President Bush has threatened to veto House legislation that would impose a one-year moratorium on changes sought by HHS to Medicaid, the federal insurance program for the poor. Congressional budget analysts say the reimbursement changes would lower federal spending by $17.8 billion over five years. State officials said the impact would be greater, including cuts to physicians at teaching hospitals and to urban public hospitals whose emergency rooms are already strained.
Waxman said Chertoff's and Leavitt's departments were "irresponsible" because they had not analyzed the impact of cuts on emergency rooms.

 

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