Medicaid Program – Arizona

Posted on March 31, 2011 by townsend

• Arizona asking feds to OK cutting 160K from Medicaid rolls, By Mary K. Reinhart and Ginger Rough, March 31, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Gov. Jan Brewer will formally ask federal health officials today to eliminate more than 160,000 people from the Medicaid rolls under a sweeping plan that would freeze two programs for adults, eliminate coverage for catastrophic care and impose a range of fees and limits on health-care services for Arizona’s indigent. As part of the governor’s Medicaid proposal, the cornerstone of her budget-balancing plan, Brewer also wants lawmakers to restore funding for certain organ transplants, The Republic has learned. Brewer and legislators have come under withering criticism in Arizona and across the country since cutting the life-saving procedures last fall. Brewer’s plan, contained in a 16-page request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would gradually reduce enrollment in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, rather than ending coverage abruptly for more than 250,000 people as she originally proposed…”
• AHCCCS recipients await fate of health-care program, By Mary Jo Pitzl, March 31, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s health-care program for low-income adults has been on the bubble for months, the subject of intense debate at the state Capitol over how many people to cut from a program that Republicans and Gov. Jan Brewer say is unsustainable. While the debate rages at the Capitol, the 250,000 people who were originally targeted have watched anxiously, wondering how they will get health care if they are dropped from the state’s Medicaid program. ‘What am I going to do, go to the (emergency room) every day?’ asked John Read, a Phoenix resident who relies on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to cover his medications for diabetes, HIV and high cholesterol. Read, 52, is one of the so-called Prop. 204 population, named after the ballot measure 11 years ago that mandated broader Medicaid coverage in Arizona. The group is wide-ranging, but there are some common traits. They are mostly adults without dependent children, more male than female, who earn less than $10,890 a year, if they have a job. About half are White, according to 2009 statistics; a quarter are Hispanic…”