Medicaid Cuts Hurt At The State Level

[unhappycamper]

Medicaid Cuts Hurt At The State Level
CARLA K. JOHNSON | 12/13/10 09:34 PM | AP

CHICAGO — In Illinois, a pharmacist closes his business because of late Medicaid payments. In Arizona, a young father's liver transplant is canceled because Medicaid suddenly won't pay for it. In California, dentists pull teeth that could be saved because Medicaid doesn't pay for root canals.

Across the country, state lawmakers have taken harsh actions to try to rein in the budget-busting costs of the health care program that serves 58 million poor and disabled Americans. Some states have cut payments to doctors, paid bills late and trimmed benefits such as insulin pumps, obesity surgery and hospice care.

Lawmakers are bracing for more work when they reconvene in January. Some states face multibillion-dollar deficits. Federal stimulus money for Medicaid is soon to evaporate. And Medicaid enrollment has never been higher because of job losses.

In the view of some lawmakers, Medicaid has become a monster, and it's eating the budget. In Illinois, Medicaid sucks up more money than elementary, secondary and higher education combined.

"Medicaid is such a large, complicated part of our budget problem, that to get our hands around it is very difficult. It's that big. It's that bad," said Illinois Sen. Dale Righter, a Republican and co-chairman of a bipartisan panel to reform Medicaid in Illinois, where nearly 30 percent of total spending goes to the program.



unhappycamper comment: Being as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and aid to cities and states come out of the same funding pot, let me throw two more facts at you:

1. the 2011 national budget allocates 58% of all non-discretionary funding to the military
2. the 2011 national budget allocates 7% of all non-discretionary funding to the interest on the national debt

With 65% of all non-discretionary funding already spent, it's understandable why this is happening.

[samplegirl]

1. We all know where the money is going

this is a great post worth K&R.

[dkf]

2. In Hawaii we have been told we must keep funding Medicaid benefits for Micronesians.

After the Federal Government cut off aid to Micronesians, Hawaii was the one state that kept funding them. Now the Micronesians want to come here because we also provide housing and medical care and other benefits meant for our poor. Even though Micronesia isn't a territory they have the right to passage here because of the agreements made due to their health problems after nuclear testing. But it is not fair that only the citizens of one state are having to carry the burdens of decisions made before we were even a state.