- Medicaid savings unrealistic, study says, By Warren Wolfe and Rachel Stassen-Berger, March 22, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Faulty information is driving a plan by Minnesota House Republicans to save $300 million in Medicaid spending over the next two years by seeking to exempt the state from some federal rules in exchange for a lump-sum block grant, a Washington think tank says. The House proposal is based on a 2009 ‘global Medicaid waiver’ for Rhode Island that some former officials say saved the state about $150 million in its first 18 months. But the ‘savings’ actually came from extra federal Recovery Act money to states — including $400 million to Rhode Island — to help them cope with the recession, said the report by health policy analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Research, published last week and updated Tuesday…”
- Opponents of Medicaid cuts warn of devastating ripple effect, By Chuck Lindell, March 22, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “Proposed steep cuts to state Medicaid spending threaten to force medically fragile children and adults with disabilities away from home care and into nursing homes and other institutions, health care advocates said at Capitol rallies Tuesday. At the same time, however, the 33 percent cuts proposed for Medicaid-funded nursing homes will force agencies to close across Texas, limiting options for thousands of the state’s elderly, advocates warned. The ripple effect of the cuts – estimated at $7.6 billion to almost $10 billion, or roughly one-third of Texas’ Medicaid spending – will endanger lives, kill jobs, strain the state’s economy, and cost Texas more money in the long run, they said…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty