Medicaid: Cuts go back to the future?
When the history of the administration of Gov. Haley Barbour is written, one of the longest, thickest chapters will center on his loud, long and frequent political battles with the Mississippi Hospital Association – and it’s likely back to the future as the Fiscal Year 2012 budget is being crafted.
Barbour’s FY 2012 budget recommendation proposes an 8 percent cut for hospitals and other Medicaid providers and a 4 percent cut for nursing homes that MHA officials claim puts him in the position of reneging on the 2009 “hospital tax” agreement. The “hospital tax” battle raged for three years between Barbour, the Division of Medicaid and the state Senate on one side and Cameron, the MHA and the House on the other.
The so-called “hospital tax” or provider assessment is a means to partially fund the state’s portion of Medicaid – the federal-state program that provides health care for the poor, the blind, the disabled and children.
Clarion Ledger
12/2/10
Magnolia Tribune
