- Arizona lawmakers back governor on Medicaid waiver, By Paul Davenport (AP), January 20, 2011, Washington Post: “The Arizona Legislature on Thursday authorized Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to seek a federal waiver allowing the cash-short state to temporarily remove nearly 300,000 people from its Medicaid rolls in the first such request by a state. The House and Senate approved the authorization requested by Brewer amid questions about whether the waiver request would be approved by President Barack Obama’s administration, and if the legislation would survive an anticipated court challenge. Brewer wants to suspend the eligibility of 280,000 low-income adults, which would scale back the state’s coverage to near that of most other states and save $541.5 million. It’s the single biggest element in Brewer’s plan to eliminate a projected $1.1 billion shortfall in the next state budget…”
- Dayton: Medicaid shift will be soon, By Warren Wolfe, January 20, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Briskly brushing aside the views of his predecessor, Gov. Mark Dayton said Thursday that Minnesota will begin a major expansion of its Medicaid program on March 1, not in October as the Pawlenty administration had projected. His decision to move about 95,000 patients into Medicaid was a ‘no-brainer,’ Dayton said at a news conference. The shift will offer more comprehensive care for most of the affected patients and is expected to bring Minnesota about $1.1 billion in federal funds over the next biennium. There will be no net cost to the state beyond what it would have spent for those patients who are currently on two state health plans, state analysts concluded. While the move was applauded by many health care providers and Dayton’s DFL allies, Republicans said the expansion will be shortsighted…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty