GAUGING THE IMPACT OF ARIZONA'S MEDICAID CUTS
posted by Michael Chihak
Friday's Arizona Week will present an in-depth look at the effects of the impending cuts to Medicaid, the health-care system for poor Arizonans.
The cuts, announced as the biggest part of Gov. Jan Brewer's 2011-12 budget balancing act, would total $541.5 million and trigger the loss of another $1 billion in federal matching money. Between 250,000 and 280,000 adults in the state, many of them working class people earning less than the federal poverty rate, would lose coverage.
Brewer this week met with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to ask for modifications to the state's Medicaid program so she can reduce the amount she needs to cut. Sebelius asked for a written plan. This came two weeks after Sebelius told Brewer in a letter that it is up to Brewer, without need for federal permission, to make the cuts to the program. That left Brewer holding the blame bag rather than her and the Legislature having the option of blaming the Obama administration if the cuts had to be made.
On the program to discuss the impact on his organization will be Dennis Dahlen, senior vice president and CFO of Banner Health, the state's largest health-care system with 13 hospitals and 35,000 employees, mostly in the Phoenix area.
Also scheduled to appear is Alison Hughes, director of the Rural Health Office at the University of Arizona College of Public Health. She will help gauge the impact on rural areas, including the state's rural and small-town population and rural hospitals and other health-care facilities.
Providing journalistic analysis and commentary will be Arizona Public Media's Luis Carrión, the Arizona Republic's Mary K. Reinhart and the Arizona Capitol Times' Jeremy Duda.
The program will air Friday at 8:30 p.m. MST in Tucson on KUAT-TV Channel 6 and at 10:30 p.m. in Phoenix on KAET-TV Channel 8. It also will be available at azweek.com.
