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Two government budget practices that can have significant implications for lower levels of government are block grants and unfunded mandates.

Higher levels of government should provide adequate resources when mandating functions to lower levels of government.

Services should be implemented and operated by the level of government that can most appropriately and efficiently deliver them.

Grandparents and other relatives play an important caregiving role in family well-being. Support from extended family is especially vital in families with low incomes.

Efforts to reform entitlement spending should recognize the following factors:

A loophole in Medicare law related to hospital outpatient services (such as diagnostic tests, radiology, and certain surgeries) had subjected beneficiaries to much higher c

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should ensure that the phase-down of beneficiary coinsurance for outpatient hospital care continues as rapidly as possible.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should closely monitor and vigorously enforce balance-billing limits.

Congress should not expand private contracting for physician services.

Traditional fee-for-service Medicare uses several payment systems to pay providers for services in the traditional program: prospective, episode-based, and