Waivers: Past, Present, & Future

November 15, 2010 It was nearly three decades ago that President Ronald Reagan referenced Katie Beckett in press conference while discussing regulatory reform. The severely-disabled Katie was then a three-year old girl living in a hospital because Medicaid would not pay for her to be cared for at home, despite her doctors’ recommendations and the fact that her care at home would cost only 1/6 of what it did in the hospital. Just a month later, in December of 1981, Katie’s family was granted a Medicaid waiver allowing her to be cared for at home. Soon . . .