"We are unanimously opposed to inclusion of individual entitlements" in the Medicaid bill, he said.

Congress provided a fixed amount of money for those programs, but said explicitly that there was no individual entitlement to benefits.

None of the state programs eliminate the individual entitlement to Medicaid, the bedrock of the 30-year-old program.

Sen's theory, looks at individual "entitlements", or direct access, to food resources.

Once they have an address, the mentally ill become eligible for individual entitlements that may defray costs of their housing dramatically.

In 1995, Congress passed a bill to end the individual entitlement and let each state devise its own program with a lump sum of federal money.

None of the state programs eliminate the individual entitlement to Medicaid, the bedrock upon which the program has been built for 30 years.

"We believe that the individual entitlement to a minimum level of assistance must be maintained for our children and families."

If you block grant it to the states, it is not an individual entitlement.

A Federal waiver process obscures the fact that there is no individual entitlement, but it needn't.