State Cuts to Medicaid – Mississippi, Oklahoma

Barbour slashes $54.3M from Mississippi budget, By Elizabeth Crisp, December 4, 2009, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: “Gov. Haley Barbour is whittling another $54.3 million from the state budget as revenues continue to fall, but Mississippi’s remaining $160 million shortfall likely will be addressed in January after the legislative session begins. ‘When the Legislature spent more money than we had, it falls on the governor to make the savings, which I do,’ he said. Barbour is making his second round of budget cuts since July 1. The cuts, coupled with those in September, amount to $226.3 million. He cut $200 million the previous fiscal year. Many state agencies are now nearly 10 percent below their funding for last year…”
Agency to decide Oklahoma Medicaid cutbacks, By Michael McNutt, December 3, 2009, The Oklahoman: “Thousands of Oklahoma Medicaid patients would see benefits reduced as the state agency that manages the federal program grapples with required 5 percent budget cuts, according to a spending-cut proposal presented Wednesday to a House budget subcommittee. Proposals include limiting paid emergency room visits to three a year, eliminating outpatient adult therapies, such as speech and physical therapy, eliminating reimbursement for newborn circumcision and reducing the number of brand-name prescriptions from three to two for adults, said Mike Fogarty, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority…”