Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights News About State Budgets

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 17 Nov 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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Summaries of recent news about state budgets in Maine, New York and Pennsylvania appear below.

• Maine: Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey this week proposed eliminating some services for low-income MaineCare beneficiaries to help reach the state goal of $100 million in cuts each year for the next two years, the Bangor Daily News reports. MaineCare is the state's Medicaid program. Harvey said the goal is to create a package of services under MaineCare that best serves beneficiaries. She said, "We really tried to be surgical about this process." In a memo sent to state Finance Commissioner Ryan Low, Harvey lists social services, podiatry, optometry, physical therapy and psychological services among those that could be eliminated for people older than 21 who have incomes between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level, childless adults and some people with disabilities. Other proposed cuts would reduce reimbursements to critical-access hospitals and pay hospital doctors on a fee schedule (Leary, Bangor Daily News, 11/12).
  
  
• New York: Gov. David Paterson (D) on Wednesday proposed budget cuts intended to save $5.2 billion over the next 16 months, including cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs, the New York Times reports. Paterson's proposal would reduce health care spending by $572 million this year and by $1.2 billion next year (Hakim, New York Times, 11/13). Under the plan, hospitals and clinics would experience a $154 million cut this year and a $458 million cut next year. He also has proposed an 8% across-the-board cut in the Medicaid reimbursement rate this year and an additional 2% cut next year. The proposal also would reduce funding for grants for public hospital recruitment and retention and eliminate annual inflation adjustment payments. In addition, the proposal would increase taxes on health insurers, reduce reimbursements to pharmacies participating in Medicaid and the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage program and reduce Medicaid payments to nursing homes and home care agencies (Wang/Swingle, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 11/13).
  
  
• Pennsylvania: While Gov. Ed Rendell (D) has pledged to ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries would not be affected by his order to cut 4.25% from the state's budget, some Republican lawmakers say that all programs must be considered for cuts, including Medicaid, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. The program is Pennsylvania's second largest budget expenditure. The state is facing a potential deficit of $1 billion to $3 billion in 2009 in large part because of projected declines in state tax revenue, according to the Tribune-Review (Bumsted/Togneri, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 11/10).

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