Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents are finding themselves in a health-insurance crisis. While those injured, sick, or chronically in need of health-care services are finally gaining access to emergency medical services at shelters or in the towns and cities to which they have been evacuated, their ability to continue getting needed care is made very difficult and put at risk because the United States does not have a national health insurance system.

After creating record federal budget deficits by giving tax cuts to the wealthy and financing the war in Iraq, the Bush administration's budget proposal in February is widely expected to try to shrink deficits largely by slashing programs for the poor and the elderly, particularly Medicaid. Capitol Hill is expecting the administration's fiscal 2006 budget to include drastic cuts in federal Medicaid spending, offering states more flexibility in deciding what Medicaid will cover and who can enroll, in exchange for caps on federal money. And to help implement this the White House has just installed former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt as the new secretary of health and human services.