The National Governors Association (NGA) updated its principles for Medicaid reform yesterday, focusing on strategies to curb prescription drug and long-term care costs, and on giving states more flexibility to impose additional cost-sharing. The new principles focus on issues that are likely to be considered as Congress is set to make cuts to the Medicaid program next month. The report, Short-Run Medicaid Reform, expands on the Medicaid reform principles the group released in June. The NGA seemed to have mended its rift with the Congressional Medicaid Commission as the two proposals to reform Medicaid are very similar. The NGA commented, "The Governors appreciate the fact that the Medicaid Commission has come to many of the same policy conclusions that are recommended in this paper and they look forward to working with them over the next 16 months as they focus on the long-run restructuring of Medicaid." Not all groups were satisfied with the NGA principles when they were first released in June, nor their revision yesterday. FamiliesUSA, a nonpartisan nonprofit group advocating on behalf of health care consumers, released a report last month expressing reservations about the timing of the NGA principles and criticized Congress as "putting the cart before the horse." FamiliesUSA urged both Congress and the NGA to fully study proposed policy changes to gauge their impact on Medicaid beneficiaries before any budget cuts are made. In addition, the American Public Health Association (APHA) released a white paper yesterday urging both Congress and the NGA to protect public health services under Medicaid. APHA raised concerns some of the policy proposals being recommended to Congress by the NGA and the Medicaid Commission would "eliminate the guarantee of treatment" from the Medicaid program and undermine its goal of decreasing the number of Americans without health insurance. In particular, the APHA report urged lawmakers not to end the guarantee of preventative health services for children, saying doing so would put children's "educational attainment, emotional and cognitive development, and lives at risk."