The Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held the second of a two-day hearing on “the impact of the Administration’s Medicaid regulations on the ability of our nation’s emergency rooms to respond to a sudden influx of casualties from a terrorist attack,” said Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA). Waxman said that based on the first hearing, he was concerned about trauma centers that have “little or no surge capacity.” He said that the Bush Administration’s plans to cut Medicaid funding for hospitals would make trauma centers even more incapable of responding to a large-scale emergency situation similar to Hurricane Katrina, the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the Madrid train bombings, or other potential threats.
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