State Budget and Medicaid – Kentucky

Medicaid would be spared cuts, By Deborah Yetter, January 19, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky’s fast-growing Medicaid program would be spared cuts – and would actually see federal-funding increases because of anticipated growth in its rolls – under the budget Gov. Steve Beshear proposed Tuesday. His budget assumes savings of about $108 million in the next two years in the state’s share of the government health plan that now serves nearly 790,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians. But it doesn’t propose any cuts…”
Budget would add $782 million for Medicaid, By Valarie Honeycutt Spears, January 20, 2010, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Facing exploding growth in the government-run health insurance program for the poor and disabled, Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposed budget calls for spending an additional $782 million on Medicaid over the next two years. Beshear said the Medicaid program is adding an average of about 3,400 recipients each month, compared with 930 each month just two years ago. ‘We now have over 789,000 Kentuckians in the Medicaid program,’ Beshear said. ‘That’s nearly one in five of our citizens depending on us for their health care.’ Despite the increased spending, Beshear has directed the Medicaid program to cut costs by $108 million over the next two years…”