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Medicaid Plays Havoc With State Budgets

June 28, 2012

The Wall Street Journal on the burden of Medicaid: The 26 states that led the Supreme Court challenge against the law argue that expansion unfairly burdens them by putting them on the hook for higher Medicaid costs down the line. But states say that, even if the court strikes down the Medicaid expansion, the program [...]

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Texas Faces Growing Medicaid Burden

April 23, 2012

Here’s a worthwhile primer on Texas’s Medicaid enrollment growth and the increasing percentage it makes up of Texas’ budget. Due to federal health care reform, in 2014 all states will be required to provide Medicaid services for all citizens at or below 133 percent of FPL with Medicaid services. At present, Texas Medicaid does not [...]

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HHS Threatened Arizona Over $7.8 Billion in Medicaid Funding

March 30, 2012

While the disagreement over the Medicaid mandate to the states was not the largest issue discussed at the Supreme Court this week, one moment during debate deserves attention – the contention by Justice Breyer that the federal government would be “unreasonable” to withdraw the entirety of Medicaid funding to a state over their unwillingness to [...]

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House Republicans Introduce Medicaid Reform

March 9, 2012

A group of House Republican members including Reps. Rokita, Huelskamp, Broun, and Ohio’s Jim Jordan, head of the Republican Study Committee, introduced a comprehensive Medicaid reform measure this week. An excerpt from their press statement on the bill, titled the State Health Flexibility Act: “The status quo in Medicaid is unfair to the poor and [...]

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Sam Brownback’s Plan to Reform Medicaid

February 28, 2012

There’s a podcast interview here with Beverly Gossage concerning Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s new Medicaid plan. Kenneth Artz reports on the plan here: Over the past ten years, Kansas’ Medicaid budget has grown about 7.5 percent year—a rate consistent with the growth in other states, but one that lawmakers say cannot be sustained. To improve [...]

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Washington State Faces ER Medicaid Cuts

February 27, 2012

In Washington state, providers are facing Medicaid cutbacks, this time on Emergency Room treatment, which continue to squeeze them and drive up costs for the private marketplace. The Wall Street Journal reports: Washington’s legislature last spring ordered the Medicaid agency to cut spending on unnecessary ER visits, spurred by a budget shortfall then projected at [...]

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Maine’s Medicaid Shortfall

February 2, 2012

Maine’s Medicaid challenge is looking significant: “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 [...]

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Florida Pursues Medicaid Reform

January 24, 2012

The latest on Gov. Rick Scott’s approach to reforming Medicaid: Based on evidence Florida’s attempt to reform Medicaid is bearing fruit for the Sunshine State, Republican Gov. Rick Scott is seeking to expand it beyond its initial test counties. Florida passed its Medicaid Reform Pilot for five counties with bipartisan support in 2006. The program [...]

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In Ohio, Medicaid Patients Have Worst Survival Rates

January 13, 2012

There’s disturbing news from a recent study of Medicaid recipients and cancer based on data from Ohio, which found several disturbing datapoints. Sarah Kliff summarizes: “Medicaid patients had worse survival rates than the rest of the study sample, which included both those with private insurance and with no coverage at all. The disparities persisted even [...]

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Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Debacle

January 6, 2012

As the gradual implementation of Obamacare continues and debate over the intelligence of socialized medicine mounts, the budgetary malaise of the current Medicaid system should be a red flag to supporters of the President’s health care plan. The current degree of governmental control over healthcare is proving calamitous for states with financial troubles, and the [...]

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