Oregon lawmakers agreed to an 11.5 percent cut in Medicaid payments to hospitals instead of the 19 percent cut requested by Gov. John Kitzhaber for the 2011-2013 budget.
The proposed budget would have cut Medicaid payments to hospitals by $324 million as the state looks to bridge a $697 million shortfall in the Oregon Health Authority's budget. But lawmakers balked at the proposal since it would also decrease the federal matching funds the state receives by more than $670 million dollars. Instead, the legislature agreed to smaller cuts as well as an increase in the tax hospitals pay the state for overall revenue. The combination of a smaller payment cut and the increased tax is aimed at preserving federal matching funds for the state. The increase tax will generate nearly $260 million from the hospitals, which will be matched by roughly $400 million in federal funds over the two years. The Oregon hospital tax increase will need to be approved by the federal government before it is implemented.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana said it will continue to provide care for Medicaid patients through at least June 15, after it received contributions of more than $100,000 from across the country. The donations have come to the organization after a new state law was passed that cut off the lion's share of Planned Parenthood's state funding. The donations will allow more than 9,000 Medicaid recipients to continue receiving care at any one of 28 clinics throughout the state. Planned Parenthood is also awaiting a judgment on an injunction filed in federal court blocking the new law from taking affect. A judge is expected to rule on the injunction in early June.
Sixty percent of people said they would like to keep Medicaid as is, according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Only 13 percent of respondents supported large reductions in Medicaid funding while 30 percent supported minor reductions in funding for the program. The findings would seem to indicate that most Americans are not in favor of proposals both at the federal and state levels that advocate changing the funding mechanism for Medicaid from federal matching funds to block grants. Republicans insist that block grants are needed to give states the flexibility to design their own programs. Opponents contend the block grants would result in states reducing the number of people enrolled in the program and also would hamper states' abilities to respond quickly to rapidly increasing enrollments such as happened during the current recession.