On Monday, President Bush met with Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner to discuss the plight of Medicaid.

&uot;If we don’t do something, people in this country who are currently being served by Medicaid will lose their coverage,&uot; Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt stressed at the end of the four-day gathering where the health care program for the poor headed the agenda , according to a CNN report.

Bush’s budget plans to cut more than $40 billion from the federal-state program. States have been challenged to continually meet its costs as K-12 education demands have reached a parallel.

The governors argue that the Medicaid system needs &uot;wholesale&uot; improvements, according to CNN, and hope to convince the administration and Congress that widespread state improvements would save money and could launch a model for nationwide reforms, similar to successful welfare reform efforts.

All seemingly agree Medicaid will be far tougher to turn around than welfare.

Bush said much of the work involves closing accounting loopholes that cheat taxpayers.

Democrat Janet Napolitano of Arizona believes the President is concentrating too much on a specific amount that would reduce the federal deficit as opposed to speaking directly to the issue of Medicaid reform.

The United States is at a critical crossroad on many fronts, including the lack of a mainstream health care plan to provide the basic necessity for all Americans, Social Security, and the Medicare program to name a few.

But as governors continue to press for reform of the Medicaid program, the President and his administration should consider Napolitano’s point. While transforming the system cannot happen without hand-in-hand considering the current deficit, the administration must do something it hasn’t always taken the time to do: scrutinize every program component to ensure that deserving clients are receiving badly-needed Medicaid benefits.

Medicaid costs hikes have been fueled by health care costs, an aging population that relies even more on Medicaid to pay for nursing homes and a recession that forced more people on the state-supported system. This year, Medicaid will cost taxpayers $329 billion. Enrollment jumped by 40 percent over the past five years.

With the increased demand for Medicaid, the administration cannot afford to simply make planned cuts and shortchange present and future eligible recipients. States should be given the options to restructure its individual Medicaid programs to best serve its populations, as Democrat Tom Vilsack of Iowa suggested.

This is in the best interest of our country’s bottom line, and the people who so depend on this program.