Which Way, L.A.?

Is Medicaid Out of Control?

Established in 1965 to provide basic health care for the truly needy, today Medicaid program pays for two out of every three nursing home patients and one out of every three births, and is the leading payer of services for the mentally ill and people with HIV-AIDS. In some states, it now costs more than K-through-12 education. The Bush Administration wants to cut federal funding, and many states want to make drastic cuts that could impact the welfare of one out of every nine people in the US. Can a $300 billion program be reformed to remove what critics call incentives for over-spending or will hundreds of thousands of the very old and the newly born have to go without health care? We hear more about Medicaid reform from healthcare providers and advocates, policy experts and economists. (An extended version of this program aired earlier today on To the Point.) Reporter's Notebook: Spanish-Speaking America Latinos have become the largest minority in the US, with thriving communities not just in LA, New York and Miami, but in the Midwest, Great Plains and the Deep South. Hector Tobar, the son of Guatemalan immigrants and a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times, is author of Translation Nation. In it, he argues that this "Latin Republic of the United States" will continue to speak Spanish and to change America for a long time.