Republican Dominated NC State Legislature Has Created ONE BILLION $$ Cut To NC Medicaid Services
I saw a sign last week in Waynesville NC tauting the following:
"Stop the spending! Elect Fiscal Conservatives!"
Excuse me, but this has already happened, friend. What might be appropriate is an anarchist comment spray-painted over that tacky sign on Main Street.
Here is the what the Republican led NC State Legislature has done as outlined by Chris Fiztsimmons of NC Policy Watch:
http://www.reflector.com/opinion/fitzsimon/fitzsimon-gop-dodging-budget-blame-744481
Fitzsimon: GOP dodging budget blame
"You have to give Republican legislative leaders credit for one thing. They are getting better at avoiding the blame they deserve for the disastrous budget decisions they made this summer. And the Democrats are making it easier for them to get away with it.....
....The Republicans’ priority this year was to cut taxes no matter what, not keep teachers in the classroom or provide help for laid off workers or protect vital services to the most vulnerable people in the state.
That meant massive budget cuts in almost every state program. But the legislators didn’t want people to blame them for the services they were losing, so they wrote a budget full of smoke and mirrors to make it unclear who was behind the painful decisions.
Nowhere was that more true than in Medicaid. The budget slashed state funding for the program by more than $350 million this year, which translates to an actual cut of more than a billion dollars when you take into account that every state dollar is matched 2 to 1 by the federal government.
Thursday, HHS Deputy Secretary Michael Watson told lawmakers that Medicaid was facing a projected shortfall of $139 million, which had to be one of the least surprising revelations made at the General Assembly in quite a while.
Some of the Medicaid changes made in the budget have not yet been approved by the federal government, just as state officials predicted. The savings from Community Care of North Carolina, a successful managed care Medicaid program, are also falling well short of the Republicans wildly rosy predictions.
Watson told lawmakers the shortfall could mean an 18 percent reduction in rate Medicaid pays medical providers and acknowledged in response to a question that many adult mental health services could end.
The federal government is unlikely to approve the rate reduction, so that would mean slashing even more services for seniors and people with disabilities.
N.C. Rep. Nelson Dollar said budget writers had to deal with one-time payments and refunds in Medicaid because of bad decisions made by Democrats in previous years. In essence, it is all the Democrats fault.
True or not, building those payments and refunds into the budget is hardly justification for counting on savings that you know will never materialize.
Dollar and N.C. Sen. Pete Brunstetter both then repeated the misleading claims they made during the budget debate, that the expected savings were reasonable and they would work with HHS officials to find them.
Neither Dollar nor Brunstetter mentioned the doubly counted cut in the inflationary increase. It’s harder to blame that on somebody else.
Brunstetter said there was some “unfortunate finger pointing” going on about the Medicaid shortfall, apparently referring to comments by Perdue administration officials pointing out the absurdity in the Republicans’ claims.
But the problem wasn’t that finger pointing was going on, the problem was that not enough fingers were being pointed. Watson, the HHS official making the Medicaid presentation, missed several opportunities to make things clear for legislators and the media on hand.
And only Senator Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt asked any tough questions in the face of the Republicans blame-and-mislead dance.
The bottom line is that Republicans passed a budget that will force state officials to cut off vital services to seniors and people with disabilities. And they knew they were doing it.
The public deserves to hear that truth. Perdue and her administration need to plainly speak it.
Chris Fitzsimon is the founder and director of N.C. Policy Watch, a progressive public policy think tank that is a special project of the N.C. Justice Center."
"Stop the spending! Elect Fiscal Conservatives!"
Excuse me, but this has already happened, friend. What might be appropriate is an anarchist comment spray-painted over that tacky sign on Main Street.
Here is the what the Republican led NC State Legislature has done as outlined by Chris Fiztsimmons of NC Policy Watch:
http://www.reflector.com/opinion/fitzsimon/fitzsimon-gop-dodging-budget-blame-744481
Fitzsimon: GOP dodging budget blame
"You have to give Republican legislative leaders credit for one thing. They are getting better at avoiding the blame they deserve for the disastrous budget decisions they made this summer. And the Democrats are making it easier for them to get away with it.....
....The Republicans’ priority this year was to cut taxes no matter what, not keep teachers in the classroom or provide help for laid off workers or protect vital services to the most vulnerable people in the state.
That meant massive budget cuts in almost every state program. But the legislators didn’t want people to blame them for the services they were losing, so they wrote a budget full of smoke and mirrors to make it unclear who was behind the painful decisions.
Nowhere was that more true than in Medicaid. The budget slashed state funding for the program by more than $350 million this year, which translates to an actual cut of more than a billion dollars when you take into account that every state dollar is matched 2 to 1 by the federal government.
Thursday, HHS Deputy Secretary Michael Watson told lawmakers that Medicaid was facing a projected shortfall of $139 million, which had to be one of the least surprising revelations made at the General Assembly in quite a while.
Some of the Medicaid changes made in the budget have not yet been approved by the federal government, just as state officials predicted. The savings from Community Care of North Carolina, a successful managed care Medicaid program, are also falling well short of the Republicans wildly rosy predictions.
Watson told lawmakers the shortfall could mean an 18 percent reduction in rate Medicaid pays medical providers and acknowledged in response to a question that many adult mental health services could end.
The federal government is unlikely to approve the rate reduction, so that would mean slashing even more services for seniors and people with disabilities.
N.C. Rep. Nelson Dollar said budget writers had to deal with one-time payments and refunds in Medicaid because of bad decisions made by Democrats in previous years. In essence, it is all the Democrats fault.
True or not, building those payments and refunds into the budget is hardly justification for counting on savings that you know will never materialize.
Dollar and N.C. Sen. Pete Brunstetter both then repeated the misleading claims they made during the budget debate, that the expected savings were reasonable and they would work with HHS officials to find them.
Neither Dollar nor Brunstetter mentioned the doubly counted cut in the inflationary increase. It’s harder to blame that on somebody else.
Brunstetter said there was some “unfortunate finger pointing” going on about the Medicaid shortfall, apparently referring to comments by Perdue administration officials pointing out the absurdity in the Republicans’ claims.
But the problem wasn’t that finger pointing was going on, the problem was that not enough fingers were being pointed. Watson, the HHS official making the Medicaid presentation, missed several opportunities to make things clear for legislators and the media on hand.
And only Senator Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt asked any tough questions in the face of the Republicans blame-and-mislead dance.
The bottom line is that Republicans passed a budget that will force state officials to cut off vital services to seniors and people with disabilities. And they knew they were doing it.
The public deserves to hear that truth. Perdue and her administration need to plainly speak it.
Chris Fitzsimon is the founder and director of N.C. Policy Watch, a progressive public policy think tank that is a special project of the N.C. Justice Center."
posted by Marsha V. Hammond, PhD at 12:02 PM
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