State Budgets and Medicaid

Posted on December 12, 2011 by townsend

• Maine gov seeks Medicaid cuts to bridge budget gap, By Glenn Adams (AP), December 6, 2011, Boston Globe: “Saying Maine cannot afford one of the country’s most generous Medicaid programs over the long term, Gov. Paul LePage on Tuesday proposed tougher eligibility standards and other changes that would leave more than 60,000 people without coverage they are now receiving. In a news conference Tuesday, LePage said an analysis of state spending in current fiscal year, which ends in June, shows a shortfall of $120 million in Medicaid, known in the state as MaineCare. The shortfall for the 2012-13 fiscal year is an additional $101 million ‘that we know of,’ he said, creating a $221 million gap. The 361,000 people now on Medicaid ‘is pushing one-third of our population,’ said the Republican governor, while the national average is about 20 percent…”
• Medicaid, seniors’ tax break loom over Colorado’s next budget, By Tim Hoover, December 11, 2011, Denver Post: “Gov. John Hickenlooper helped end a standoff over the state budget between Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the last legislative session, but a fiscal fracas shaping up for 2012 may prove much harder to quell. That’s because this time the Democratic governor himself is squarely in the middle of it, recommending a 2012-13 budget that would suspend a property tax break for seniors that would cost the state $98.6 million. The Senior Homestead Exemption allows Coloradans 65 and older who have lived in their homes for at least 10 years to exempt 50 percent of the first $200,000 of the property value of their homes from taxes. But Republicans say they don’t want to delay the tax break for additional years. Instead, they say, Hickenlooper should be trying to seek a federal waiver to trim the cost of Medicaid, the state and federally funded health care program for the poor that takes nearly a third of the state’s general fund…”
• State Medicaid cuts concern clients, By JoAnne Young, December 10, 2011, Lincoln Journal Star: “Ron and Laura Trautman tried to have a baby for 10 years before Christopher and Adam were born May 17, 2007. One of the twins, Christopher, was born with multiple birth defects. His physical problems kept him in Omaha Children’s Hospital for 15 months. So far, he’s had 29 surgeries, with more to come. At 4, he still has a tracheostomy and eats through a gastrostomy button feeding device. He’s about three years behind in development. ‘With all the surgeries he’s had, we’re lucky to have him,’ his dad said. Medicaid helps the Waverly family with nursing care for Christopher so the parents can work and go to school…”