NYT Story today on state

NYT Story today on state Medicaid cutbacks

Medicaid is the joint federal-state program providing medical assistance to the poor. Budget crises, high recession induced unemployment levels, and rapidly rising medical costs have increased the demands on the program while making it much harder for the states to meet them. In response, states forced to cut back on their Medicaid programs. The New York Times carried a survey story by Robert Pear yesterday: "Rising Costs Prompt States to Reduce Medicaid further".

"WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 — Struggling through a third consecutive year of fiscal distress, states have again squeezed Medicaid, the nation's largest health insurance program, by scaling back eligibility, cutting benefits, increasing co-payments and freezing or reducing payments to doctors and hospitals.

Vernon K. Smith, former Medicaid director of Michigan, said today that soaring health costs and plunging state revenues had forced virtually every state to take action to slow the growth of Medicaid, the health program for 51 million Americans..."

The Times story is built on the findings of several studies on states and Medicaid released yesterday by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (a Kaiser Family Foundation commission). The web page for the studies is here: "State Fiscal Conditions and Health Coverage: An Update on FY2004 and Beyond".