MEDICAID CUTS HAVE BIG HEALTH, ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS

posted by Michael Chihak

Gov. Jan Brewer hoped to meet today in Washington, D.C., with Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, to discuss changes in Arizona's Medicaid programs.

Sebelius has already told Brewer that the cuts the governor wants to make in Arizona's health-care program for the poor are up to the state to make, and federal permission isn't needed. With that, state officials say they plan to move ahead with cuts to save$541.5 million in state funding to balance the budget for 2011-12. That also would lead to a loss of $1 billion in federal matching money to the state.

Those cuts would:

• Drop from coverage 280,000 adults, many of them working in businesses that don't provide health care coverage.

• Affect up to half the patients whose doctors practice in rural areas, causing hardship on the doctors and rural clinics and hospitals.

• Cause the loss of 46,000 jobs in the state, most of them in the private sector, according to a study by Arizona State University economist Tom Rex.

To get perspective on it, we will seek to talk to several experts for Friday's program, including:

• Laurie Liles, president and CEO of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

• One or more physicians whose practices and patients would be affected.

• Journalists who cover health care in the state.