USA Today reports that states are being forced to scale back safety net health care resources just as more people qualify to need them. Many cuts affect Medicaid.
Among the cuts are Hawaii's program for uninsured children, and
• South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford must decide by Thursday whether to sign a budget that would slash $160 million in health care, including an 8.1% cut to Medicaid and a 10.8% cut to the Department of Mental Health. Programs to help autistic children, the elderly who need prescription drugs and low-income workers may be hit.
• California in July cut payments to hospitals 10% under its Medicaid program, Medi-Cal. It had planned to restore 5% in March, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called an emergency legislative session Nov. 5 to deal with lower-than-expected revenues.
- Massachusetts this month cut $293 million from its Medicaid budget, including $40 million from the Cambridge Health Alliance for care it already provided to low-income residents. The alliance, which runs three hospitals and dozens of clinics, says that cut plus other state cuts could total an amount equal to the cost of 650 full-time employees — or 20% of its workforce.
via USAtoday.com
[visual description: A chart is shown entitled Medicaid's State Spending. Bars show average state spending for education at 34%; Medicaid at 17%; higher education at 11%; corrections at 7%; and public assistance at 2%. At the bottom it reads: Source: National Association of State Budget Officers, By Julie Snider, USA Today.
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