- Reshaping Medicaid care to affect many, By Carrie Teegardin and Misty Williams, June 3, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia is reshaping its Medicaid program, a complex lifeline for 1.7 million vulnerable people that consumes $21 million in state and federal dollars every single day. The state is widely expected to announce a plan this summer that would dramatically expand the use of for-profit insurance companies in a new approach to managing Medicaid. The hope: that the companies would help hold down burgeoning Medicaid costs by emphasizing prevention and better tracking and coordinating care. That should mean fewer poor, disabled and elderly Georgians end up in emergency rooms, that more psychiatric patients remain stable and that doctors share test results instead of ordering duplicates that taxpayers wind up funding…”
- Medicaid more than medical aid, By Misty Williams and Carrie Teegardin, June 4, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “People like Francel Kendrick once spent most of their lives locked inside state hospitals. Today, because of Georgia’s Medicaid program, Kendrick and thousands of disabled people like him can hold down a job and ride a city bus to their own homes after work. Medicaid isn’t just a health plan for low-income people. These days, it’s a job training program, relief for a mom with an autistic son and crisis teams to help someone with schizophrenia live a stable life in the community. State health officials who are redesigning the state’s $7.8 billion Medicaid program face an especially tricky task in dealing with recipients who rely on this broad spectrum of services. They are Georgians with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses, as well as foster children and people with disabling physical conditions that keep them in bed or in wheelchairs…”
Tag: Disability
State Medicaid Cuts – Illinois
- Legislature OKs Medicaid cuts; no vote yet on cigarette tax, By Doug Finke and Chris Wetterich, May 24, 2012, State Journal-Register: “The Illinois House and Senate on Thursday passed pieces of a Medicaid overhaul, including legislation slashing $1.6 billion from the program. Gov. Pat Quinn praised legislators but said their work won’t be complete until they pass a $1-per-pack cigarette tax. ‘Raising the price of cigarettes is also sound health policy. Smoking-related conditions are a significant burden on our Medicaid system, and this measure will improve the health of our people and reduce future Medicaid costs,’ he said in a statement. The House voted 94-22 and the Senate voted 44-13 to adopt the cuts in Senate Bill 2840, which range from outright elimination of some programs – like Illinois Cares Rx, a prescription drug assistance program for seniors – to taking extra steps to ensure that those receiving aid are entitled to it. The bill now heads to Quinn’s desk…”
- Illinois Legislature passes $1.6 billion in Medicaid cuts, By Ray Long and Alissa Groeninger, May 25, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Hundreds of thousands of poor Illinoisans would lose health coverage, prescription drug discounts for seniors would be dropped and dental care for adults would be greatly curtailed as part of $1.6 billion in budget cuts lawmakers approved Thursday. The major Medicaid reductions ignited anger in some lawmakers who say the cutbacks will jeopardize the lives of the state’s most vulnerable residents. ‘I don’t know where it’s written in the law that this has to be balanced on the backs of poor people, on the backs of seniors, on the backs of the aged, blind and disabled,’ said Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago. But supporters argued failure to approve the bill could lead to cuts throughout state government and result in the collapse of the entire Medicaid system…”
General Assistance Program – Pennsylvania
Cash aid for disabled adults on state chopping block, Associated Press, May 16, 2012, Patriot-News: “A decades-old program that provides about $200 a month for tens of thousands of disabled adults who can’t work is on the chopping block even as improving tax collections give state lawmakers the freedom to reverse some of Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed cuts in spending for things like universities, the race horse industry and the Legislature itself. Corbett, a Republican who ran on a no-new-taxes pledge, advocated doing away with the $150 million General Assistance cash benefit in a $27.1 billion budget plan he released in February. It called for a series of cutbacks he blamed largely on the rising cost of pensions and health care for the poor…”