Washington – Unless Congress bails them out, states probably will have to cut health coverage for low-income families and others without insurance, a new report says.
Lawmakers included higher Medicaid reimbursement funds for states in last year’s economic stimulus bill, but the money will expire next Dec. 31.
Without an extension, most states won’t be able to ensure that eligible Medicaid beneficiaries will be served, according to Families USA, a nonpartisan health advocacy group, which issued the report Thursday.
“At the same time Congress is considering health reform, a more immediate crisis is looming that will cause many to join the ranks of the uninsured within the next year,” said Ron Pollack, the group’s executive director.
The report says that a six-month extension of the increased reimbursement rate also would help spur business activity and create jobs.
Medicaid is a health insurance program for the poor whose costs are shared by the federal government and the states. Income eligibility varies from state to state.
As states wrestle with tough budgets because of the economy, they’re scrambling for ways to save money.
In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cuts that would drop 250,000 children, pregnant women and parents from the state’s Medicaid program.
Florida might tighten eligibility in a way that would eliminate 19- and 20-year-olds from Medicaid, as well as some expectant mothers.
Kansas already has cut Medicaid reimbursement rates to doctors, hospitals and other health care providers by 10 percent.
“If providers decide not to participate in Medicaid, or not take on any more Medicaid patients because the rates are too low, we have a lot of concerns about assuring access to care,” said Peter Hancock, a spokesman for the Kansas Health Policy Authority, which administers the state’s Medicaid program.
President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal 2011 contains extra Medicaid funds for every state. The House of Representatives also recently passed a jobs bill that includes a six-month extension of the higher reimbursement rate.
The Senate hasn’t taken any action yet but it’s expected to debate its own jobs legislation next week.
“The taxpayer credit card is maxed out,” said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo. “I understand states are already struggling, but this is precisely why the federal government shouldn’t be imposing more unfunded mandates on states as the Democrats have proposed in their massive health care bills.”
Medicaid advocates say that states need to know soon whether Congress intends to help, because they’re involved in 2011 budget talks now.
“They’re in very dire, dire straits,” said Ann Kohler, the director of health services for the American Public Human Services Association. “They are looking at ways to survive. State revenues will lag about three or four years behind the (economic) recovery, so they’re not going to be out of this for some time. This money is critical.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy