The Final Solution. Taking benefits away without saying so.

Repealed without using the word "repealed": Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance Program eligibility and enrollment rules.

(Author Photo)

The word they used in the budget reconciliation bill is "Moratorium" to prohibit enforcement of Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) rules for the next nine years.

They didn't call it a repeal in any of these three cases, because they couldn't, not without violating the law themselves. You see, the Congressional Review Act was in their way. It still is.

This is not only a continuing story from the recent past, it isn't even past to again borrow a quote from William Faulkner, a quote which I have borrowed in the past. Each of these three operations were a part of the same campaign: to take money away from these programs even though the regime promised that such programs "wouldn't be touched," and repeal the rules without the people knowing.

In addition to their attempts to impose a "moratorium" on a rule addressing Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities Under the Medicare and Medicaid Programs (see When nobody follows the law, then there is no law) and besides a different attempt in the same legislation to also impose a "moratorium" on eligibility and enrollment in the Medicare Savings Programs that make it possible for people with low incomes to pay Medicare premiums (see Repeal by parts), there was also at least one other attempt in this monstrously huge bill to impose a "moratorium" on a previously final rule.

This one contained an attempt to impose a rejection on "implementing, administering, or enforcing" certain provisions of a "final rule published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on April 2, 2024" (emphasis added).

This "moratorium" blocked enforcement of ten regulations concerning Eligibility for Medicaid, one regulation which would have changed "Payments for Services," and five more regulations that included Eligibility for the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The bad news is that this has already happened. These "moratoriums" are the law, until they are set aside.

The good news is that a lot can be done about it even now, but every response involves a lot of hard work.

The bad news: This has already happened. In each of these three cases, the budget reconciliation bill blocked enforcement of rules in the same identical language. Only the dates of the rules changed. The dates of the final rules make all the difference.

Each one of the three moratoriums applied to rules and regulations that should have been addressed earlier, since they became final long before the legislators voted on the budget reconciliation bill: September 21, 2023; April 2, 2024, and May 10, 2024. The three moratoriums collectively applied to Medicare, Medicaid, in CHIP.

Without once suggesting that the rules were actually repealed, they completely blocked enforcement of every one of them until "September 30, 2034." Since Congress did not comply with its own law and repeal them in the past under the Congressional Review Act, these rules could not be repealed now unless they were outright repealed, not simply thrown under a moratorium like a dead body under a blanket. BTW: Congress could have repealed these rules outright, but they apparently did not have the votes (perhaps a step too far for some of the legislators) so they tried hiding the repeals this way.

The bad news is that they stand repealed. Unless ....

The good news: A lot of things can be done about it.

The first thing that can be done has already been mentioned a couple of times, counting the articles published here on Monday and Tuesday: People who apply for Medicare and Medicaid, residents of nursing homes and recipients of Long-Term Care, parents and their children who apply for and receive the benefits of the Children's Health Insurance Program, their families, and their organizations and supporters concerned for the residents' and applicants' health and safety, and one or more or all of them, should file actions to enforce the Congressional Review Act and challenge the validity, even the constitutionality, of these provisions of the budget reconciliation bill (without foreclosing the possibility of challenging other provisions of that insanely large legislation, whoever wrote it).

That's a lot of people. One thought to add to the mix: Be sure to be inclusive in your cases, and be sure to work with people who think like the judges who will decide your cases and have something in common with them, including the possibility of your case reaching the Roberts court.

Second, so long as we have a Congress, use it. Demand that your Senators or Representative in Congress or "electeds" as they are called now, file bills to overturn these provisions. What was enacted in Congress can be overturned by Congress.

In addition, in the same vein of thinking, there is a rule of parliamentary procedure that Congress sometimes follows, I believe. It goes like this: A legislator that voted in favor of a successful piece of legislation, can file a motion asking for that legislation to be reconsidered, or something along those lines. It might seem like a long shot, but likely subjects are the Republican Senators and Representatives who are now claiming to express remorse at voting for this monstrosity of a bill. Without naming names, I'm thinking of you, Lisa Murkowski and all of your 49 comrades in the Senate and the 218 Representatives who all voted for these things -- whether you are willing to admit it or not.

Those are only some of the things that can be done. You will think of others. Now is the time.

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