- Legislators skeptical about plan to privatize Medicaid, By Matt Gouras (AP), October 15, 2010, Helena Independent Record: “Montana lawmakers and others said Thursday they are skeptical about Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s plan to privatize Medicaid services, especially those who remember a disaster in the mid-1990s to contract out some of those services. Only recently have health care providers and interested legislators learned about plans in the Schweitzer administration to consider a test letting a private, managed-care firm run Medicaid in part of the state, although many of the details have not been disclosed. ‘On first blush it sounds too good to be true. They don’t decrease care, they don’t decrease provider rates and plus they take their profit on top?’ said Rep. Mary Caferro, a Helena Democrat. ‘I just think if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.’ The Lee Newspapers State Bureau reported the state is considering asking companies to bid on a contract to manage Medicaid, the state’s $900 million health care program for the poor, in a five-county area that includes Helena and Great Falls…”
- Increasing Medicaid rolls and higher costs a challenge for next governor, By Bill Rufty, October 14, 2010, Lakeland Ledger: “Shannon Baxley and Brian Alvear and their two children receive health care through Medicaid. One daughter is disabled. Brian works two jobs, and Shannon is a full-time mom trying to get additional education. ‘It definitely helps,’ Baxley said. ‘But it does change, and you either are on full Medicaid like the children or you are on ‘share of cost’ depending on your income from month-to-month, based on a formula. I could see someone older who may have Medicaid in addition to their Medicare not going to the doctor, just for the hassle of figuring it out.’ With Democrat Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott hammering away on each other in the race to become Florida’s governor, one of them will soon be in a position to affect people like Baxley and her family. Whichever one gets the most votes in the Nov. 2 election will have to work with members of the state legislative leadership who have said the state’s share of Medicaid costs must be reduced…”
- Central Florida legislator looks to other states for Medicaid solutions, By Bill Rufty, October 15, 2010, Lakeland Ledger: “If anyone has seen all sides of the Medicaid issue, it has to be Ed Homan. He is a state legislator, an orthopedic surgeon whose medical group treats Medicaid patients, and he is a professor at the University of South Florida School of Medicine. The Temple Terrace Republican has tried to get a bill passed that would assure care for poor patients, would pay doctors compensation and would save money through a program that has been successful in North Carolina. But he said he keeps getting beaten back by corporate medical lobbyists. Homan’s latest attempt, and his last because he is leaving the Florida House after reaching term limits, was his introduction of a bill in the 2010 Florida Legislature that would have combined the best of the North Carolina plan and a similar one in Oklahoma…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty