Last week, the National Governors Association (NGA) has dealt the controversial President's Medicaid Commission another blow and declined to participate. The NGA declined, citing the need to continue their work as "an independent, bipartisan group." The nation's governors have been some of the most vocal critics of President Bush's push to cut the low-income health care program that is administred by the states. Also last week, key House and Senate Democrats refused to participate in the commission and blasted it for falling far short of the independent, unbiased advisory panel proposed in a compromise in the budget resolution by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR). Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt will appoint nearly 80 percent of the 38 member panel and will choose all 15 of its voting members. The NGA did release a set of principles for reforming the Medicaid program. The principles focus on initiatives that would help take financial pressure off state budgets, including improving how states pay for prescription drugs, instituting long-term care reforms, and allowing states more flexibility to require Medicaid beneficiaries to pay higher cost sharing for their health care. NGA Press Release NGA Statement of Principles on Medicaid Reform