States Interpret Ruling to Cut Medicaid Now

[PoliticAverse]

Some cash-strapped states have seized on a section of the Supreme Court's health-law decision to pare their existing Medicaid programs, saying the ruling lifts the March 2010 law's ban on such cuts.

The court, which upheld most of the law, struck down penalties for states choosing not to expand Medicaid. A few states are also trying to go farther, arguing that the ruling justifies cuts to their existing programs.

Within hours of the Supreme Court's ruling on June 28, lawyers in the Maine attorney general's office began preparing a legal argument to allow health officials to strike more than 20,000 Medicaid recipients from the state's rolls—including 19- and 20-year-olds—beginning in October to save $10 million by next July.

"We think we're on solid legal ground," Attorney General William Schneider said in an interview. "We're going to reduce eligibility back to the base levels in a couple of areas," he said. Maine, like some other states eyeing cuts, earlier expanded its Medicaid program beyond national requirements.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303684004577511103843368654.html

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[ananda]

1. Oh dear..

.. more negative repercussions for the poor.

Geez.

[pinto]

2. Seems a real stretch of the ruling.

Hope it gets challenged.

[HereSince1628]

3. When the going gets tough...

screw others and protect yours.

Republicans have cut America free from its ethical moorings.

[dtom67]

4. Don't get it...

How do people get re-elected by pulling this crap.

[Zalatix]

8. Mass hypnosis.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Rules for calculating a state's Federal funding under the Mcaid expansion

have not been set yet. I can't imagine that the baseling state effort that must be maintained to get the expansion would not be dated before the USSC decision.

Maintaining previous state effort has been a fundamental "fiscal federalism" issue in revenue sharing and block granting for decades. If states cut Medicaid payments now, I'm sure they'll suffer partial federal defunding now.

But some states may be so strapped for cash that they're willing to accept big financial penalties both now and in 2014 in turn for just being able to reduce state Medicaid spending now.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

6. Exactly

If a state cuts its Medicaid rolls back, they'll save money, even with a cut in federal funding. If current funding is 50/50 state/federal (don't know, just using that as an example), the states will still save money by cutting people off from Medicaid.

Not saying it's the right thing to do, but it is what is, and states are strapped for cash.

[HockeyMom]

7. Rick Scott of Florida wanted to slash Medicaid before

which would have efffectively shut down group homes for the developmentally disabled. They called the media which went around filming the residents of these homes. Residents who could not talk, walk, feed, or toilet themselves. The local news starting showing the film of exactly who these people were.

It outraged the public that these disabled people would have nowhere else to go. I guess it was too much very, very bad publicity for the Man in Black. It also gave a face to exactly WHO some of these people are getting Medicaid.