Medicaid: Bottom line remains the bottom line

The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 6/22/8

Medicaid is a program that has remained in perpetual crisis over the three decades that I’ve been writing about Mississippi state government. “Crisis” is a word we in the media like a lot – almost as much a politicians trying to gig a political enemy like it.

The current Medicaid “crisis” is a $90 million budget shortfall created by a change in how the federal government allowed Mississippi to pay the state’s share of the program – usually around a $1 for every $3 the state drew down in federal matching funds.

Every governor I’ve covered – from the late Cliff Finch back when I was a college newspaper columnist to Gov. Haley Barbour today – has had a Medicaid “crisis” or two on his watch.