Medicaid: Judge shouldn’t set legislative goals

The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 7/31/8

The nearly 40 hospitals seeking to stop Gov. Haley Barbour’s planned cuts to the state’s Medicaid program may have logic on their side, but a court shouldn’t intervene in basically a legislative matter.

“The state is not going to run out of money on Aug. 2, 2008, nor (are federal officials)likely to approve such draconian cuts without thorough review,” the plaintiffs wrote in a brief asking a Hinds County Chancery Court judge to halt cuts and the implementation of the proposed cuts.

Barbour, who oversees the state Division of Medicaid, says state law requires him to cut when the program faces a deficit. He is threatening the cuts Aug. 6 unless lawmakers adopt a hospital tax plan he supports.