IS BREWER FINALLY DOING HER MEDICAID MATH?
posted by Michael Chihak
Gov. Jan Brewer wants to make changes in the Medicaid program to reduce the number of people that must be dropped from the health-care program for the poor.
She came out of a meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday saying she will submit a plan to Sebelius next week on changes that could make the cut less onerous. Under her current proposal, the governor would cut up to 280,000 Arizonans from health-care coverage.
She said the cut, amounting to $541.5 million in state money and $1 billion in matching federal money, is needed to balance Arizona's budget for 2011-12.
Brewer, according to a report in today's Arizona Republic, said, "We're hoping to avoid such a drastic cut. We'd still have to cut but not by as much."
Less than two weeks ago in an interview for Arizona Week, Brewer said, "We just simply don't have the money."
In that same interview, Brewer expressed surprise at hearing that an Arizona State University economist estimated 46,000 jobs lost as a result of the Medicaid cuts and at word from the head of the state's biggest business organization that the cuts would seriously hurt small businesses.
Those facts and Sebelius' stance that Brewer doesn't need federal permission to make that big Medicaid cut may have brought about a sense of reality for the governor, the reality being that if drastic cuts are made, the responsibility is hers and the Republican-controlled Legislature's. She won't be able to blame the Obama administration.
