President To Seek Cap On Medicaid

President Clinton’s budget will propose a spending cap for the first time for Medicaid, the massive federal-state program that helps pay medical bills for 38 million poor Americans, officials said Monday.

The president’s proposal would limit the growth in spending for Medicaid to the growth rate of the gross domestic product, the nation’s total output of goods and services.

If the GDP expanded by an amount equal to 3 percent, for example, spending for Medicaid enrollees could rise no more than 3 percent.

The Medicaid spending restrictions, to be part of the overall budget for fiscal 1998 that Clinton unveils in early February, can be expected to draw criticism from many members of the Democratic Party in Congress who are strong supporters of this key entitlement program for the poor.