Fitzsimon File

One of the biggest battles of this legislative session could be fought over Medicaid funding. The budget shortfall gives the people who want to cut services to seniors, the blind and the disabled another opportunity to peddle their remarkably callous proposals.

The increasing cost of Medicaid makes it a big target. It is now 13 percent of the state budget and lawmakers must find $220 million in this tight budget year to keep benefits and reimbursements to health providers at current levels.

Those are the statistics you hear almost every time Medicaid comes up. Mentioned far less often is that 70 percent of Medicaid dollars in North Carolina pays for services for seniors and people who are blind and disabled. And never mentioned is exactly which benefit for which of these groups of Medicaid recipients the pundits with the anti-poor agenda want to cut.

You also hear don’t much about people like a woman in Chapel Hill, who after a long struggle was able to get a college degree at age 40 and is now working full time as a health care professional. She made it by working two part time jobs without benefits while going to school. Medicaid made it possible for her children to get medical care while their mother was her way out of poverty.

This week brought both a national Medicaid report that ought to be required reading for lawmakers and strong signals from House Speaker Jim Black that lawmakers may resist calls to slash health care programs for the disabled and for people like the woman in Chapel Hill.

Black went out of his way to mention Medicaid in his acceptance speech as Speaker, pointing out that governors in other states are recommending huge cuts to the program that would mean fewer services to the poor.

“We have a moral obligation to protect our most vulnerable citizens, and we must do everything in our power not to cut those critical services, Black said”

Also this week a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation that puts the growth of Medicaid spending across the nation in perspective, finding that much growth in the last few years was due to millions of people becoming eligible for the program after being laid off or losing benefits at their job.

Makes sense that a program that helps people who can’t afford to see a doctor would cost more when more people can’t afford to see a doctor.

Looming over the state efforts to save Medicaid is the real threat that Congress will reduce federal Medicaid funding to the states with disastrous consequences for North Carolina.

Finally, some folks are finally catching on that Medicaid not only helps thousands of people in the state with health care services, it provides huge benefits to North Carolina’s economy.

A 2004 report found that each million dollars the state spends on Medicaid creates almost $4 million in business activity and creates 37 jobs. That is for each million. This year the state will spend close to $9 billion in state and federal dollars.

It’s a good investment, it creates jobs, and provides health care to the state’s most vulnerable people. Sounds like something to fight for in Raleigh and in Washington.

 Email This Post  Print This Post

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2005 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.