Medicaid Cuts – Arizona

Judge allows cuts to health care coverage for poor Arizonans, By Howard Fischer, August 10, 2011, East Valley Tribune: “A judge gave the go-ahead Wednesday for the state to deny free health care over the next year to about 135,000 poor people. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Brain acknowledged that voters mandated in 2000 that the state must provide care for everyone below the federal poverty level. And the Voter Protection Act, a provision of the Arizona Constitution, prohibits lawmakers from altering or repealing anything approved by voters without taking the issue back to the ballot. But Brain said that does not preclude lawmakers from refusing to provide enough money to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover everyone who is eligible to enroll…”