Fitzsimmons NC Policy: MH Services Re-funded by Perdue

Fitzsimmons: ".....The state does not have a spending problem. The budget debate has a right-wing rhetoric problem....."

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/cms/2010/04/22/perdue’s-mixed-bag-of-a-budget/

And then we have AP reporter, Gary Robertson, rah-rahing about how Perdue is going to 'stop that Medicaid abuse.' Pray tell what are you inferring is Medicaid abuse, Mr. Robertson?

But it plays well w/ the conservatives.....yeah, you stop taking my money and get those taxes lower.

Perdue has re-funded NC Mental Health Services but moved mental health services more towards a case-management format. Case management = papework. Paperwork does NOT = face to face contact w/ mental health providers. Why, then, do we need more paperwork? The paperwork needs to be DIMINISHED not undergirded further by creating case management formatting of mental health care associated w/ Medicaid.

Additionally, when was the last time you tried to eat anything without any teeth in your head?

Or how much money was spent on the person who could not go to the dentist and got a brain abcess via their sinuses due to the infection in their mouth?

The defunding of dentistry, as indicated by Fitzsimmons, is ludicrous. And I'm a psychologist, not a dentist.

I have clients who have to get a special form signed by a physician (ONLY) in order to get some dentures. And I have seen people die in ICU's from brain abcesses because they could not get a tooth pulled. What a stupid expenditure of money and sad loss of life.

Chris Fitzsimmons from NC Policy Watch:

".....The budget is a reflection of the perceived political climate in which elected officials seem scared to even discuss new revenues, even if it means cutting dental services and eye care for people on Medicaid or asking schools to find more cuts on top on last year's reductions that resulted in teacher layoffs and larger classes.......

Perdue also makes some important investments in repairing the gaping holes in safety net like restoring $40 million that was cut from mental health services in the final hours of last session's budget negotiations. That only gets the system back to less than zero, the underfunded state it was in before the cuts, but at least it's not going further backwards...."