- Maine Governor LePage backs nation’s toughest Medicaid cuts, By Christine Vestal, February 6, 2012, Stateline.org: “Medicaid spending is a matter of urgency almost everywhere in the country right now, but in few places is the urgency as palpable as it is here, where the governor refers to the federal-state health insurance program for the poor as ‘welfare,’ says it’s necessary to eliminate coverage for 65,000 adults, and wants to stop paying room and board for some 2,000 elders who live in group homes. All these ideas are part of Republican Governor Paul LePage’s plan to close a $220 million hole in the state’s biennial Medicaid budget. ‘If we are to bring our welfare system to a manageable level that Maine can afford,’ LePage insists, ‘we must make the necessary structural changes … The state can no longer use gimmicks to fill the hole.’ The size of Maine’s Medicaid shortfall is substantial, but it pales in comparison to gaps in many other states. In fact, health experts in Maine say the program has survived far bigger shortfalls in recent years without cutting the rolls. Still, LePage argues that the program can no longer provide a ‘free lunch’ to poor 19- and 20-year olds, or to healthy adults responsible for the care of others…”
- Obama administration rejects Medi-Cal copayments, By Judy Lin (AP), San Francisco Chronicle: “Federal health officials on Monday said California cannot force Medi-Cal recipients to make a co-pay for doctor visits and prescription drugs, a decision that brings relief to low-income patients but complicates the state’s effort to close a $9.2 billion budget deficit. A letter from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said agency officials were ‘unable to identify the legal and policy support’ for the state’s request. The decision is the latest in a string of legal and regulatory challenges that have made it difficult for the state to reduce spending and balance its budget. Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers were planning to save $511 million a year in the health insurance program by requiring low-income patients to pay a share of their medical costs…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty