Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Proposed Budget Would Enact More Tax Cuts at the Expense of Commitments to Health Care March 11 press release from the Center for American Progress - "Congress is currently considering budget plans that follow the president’s lead and prioritize tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of Medicaid funding.  The budget resolutions under consideration in the House and Senate would each cut federal funding for Medicaid by approximately $15 billion while providing additional money for tax changes, which would include $23 billion in tax cuts for capital gains and dividends.The Medicaid cuts would have important implications for states’ budgets and for health care for the poor. At the same time, the budgets under consideration contains tens of billions of dollars in new tax cuts, which would overwhelmingly benefit those best able to make the sacrifices necessary to reduce the deficit. This analysis examines the state-by-state impact of the federal Medicaid cuts as proposed by the president and the Congress, and juxtaposes the results with state-by-state data on the magnitude of the tax cuts under consideration." See also the "state by state impact calculator" on the same page and the full report (in Adobe Acrobat format).  
  

Oklahoma Puts Hard Numbers Behind Cost-Savings Claims Feature story at JoinTogether - "A blue-ribbon panel convened by Oklahoma's governor and attorney general has put on paper what advocates have been telling policymakers for years: investing in addiction, mental-health, and domestic-violence services can save taxpayers billions of dollars each year. The task force last month issued a 31-page report...that details $8 billion in 'hard' and 'soft' costs associated with untreated, under-treated, and unserved addiction, mental health and domestic violence. The groups also makes five key recommendations for addressing what the panel called 'an escalating health and public-policy crisis which, if not dealt with soon, will deepen in both intensity and gravity.' " See also the task force's full report (in Adobe Acrobat format).  
  

Medicaid in 2005: Principles and Proposals for Reform A February 2005 report (in Adobe Acrobat format) prepared for the National Governors Association by Health Management Associates - "The purpose of this paper is to look at the issues, problems and challenges that face Medicaid in 2005, the outlook for the future, and to offer principles and options for reform. Focusing o­n issues and problems should not suggest an unawareness of the good that Medicaid does. Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that millions of people can be affected when Medicaid policy changes are made, both at the state and national levels. From the beginning of life to its end, it is Medicaid that makes the difference for many of the nations’ most vulnerable citizens who would otherwise lack the means to afford the health care they need. Medicaid has a special role to play in several important areas, including assuring prenatal care, caring for babies in neonatal intensive care units, providing well-child preventive care and acute care for children that helps them stay healthy in school, providing long-term care and intensive care for persons with chronic conditions and disabilities and for persons with mental illness, and filling the gaps in Medicare for the nation’s low-income seniors."  
  

Medicaid reform may be too late for some states Story at American Medical News - "Congressional lawmakers want to get Medicaid reform done by the end of the year, but for some states, that might not be soon enough. Huge growth in the program over the past five years is driving both the federal and state governments to focus on the issue. Governors are facing difficult decisions about how to deal with growing Medicaid deficits that are eating away at their budgets and crowding out other programs. But states already have trimmed much of the fat, as well as some of the meat. Before long, they could find themselves cutting into bone, experts said..."  
  

Mental health service costs offset by savings in other public sectors Penn State University press release - "Penn State researchers have found that reduced expenditures for inpatient hospitalization, the juvenile justice system, the child welfare system and the special education system offset the costs of the improved mental health services delivered to youth through the system of care approach now being tried in communities in every state in the U.S. Mental health services for youth delivered via system of care have been criticized as too expensive compared to communities that don't adopt the approach. However, the Penn State study, the first of its type, shows that including spending in other service sectors in the analysis reduced the between-community cost difference from 81 percent to only 18 percent more for system of care..." See also the free abstract of the study at Psychiatric Services.  
  

New Zealand teens part of study into cannabis mental health risk  Story at Stuff - "Research carried out on New Zealand teenagers has confirmed cannabis use is a serious risk factor for schizophrenia. 'There is a small but significant minority of people who have a predisposition to psychosis and who would be well advised to steer clear of cannabis,' a Dutch researcher, Jim van Os, said in the latest New Scientist magazine, due to be published next Saturday. Dr van Os, a psychiatrist at the University of Maastricht, investigates the effect of marijuana on people's brains - particularly adolescents' brains. He and other researchers have been building a scientific case that, for some teenagers, smoking cannabis leads to serious mental health problems in later life, including schizophrenia. Dr van Os said claims that marijuana is responsible for up to 13 per cent of schizophrenia cases in the Netherlands. He said the figure will only increase because cannabis use among teenagers was increasing in many countries, the age at first use was falling and the strength of cannabis was rising. "  
  

Uses of Proposition 63 funds suggested (California) Daily Democrat story - "At the last of three public forums about how the Mental Health Services Act should be implemented in Yolo County, Woodland area residents said Saturday they want the funds to be put toward early intervention, education and training programs. ... The point is to identify serious mental illness among people of all ages and under-served populations in the community. Program coordinator Joan Beesley said the county already has an idea of where to start: Cultural sensitivity. She said Yolo County's culturally diverse population includes those with stigmas against admitting to having mental illnesses. Many immigrants refuse to admit to being mentally ill or having drug or alcohol problems, and generally do not seek help for them."  
  

Fresh calls to drop mental health bill (UK) Guardian story - "The government today faced renewed calls to scrap its proposed reforms of mental health law after they were condemned as draconian by MPs and peers. The joint committee on the draft mental health bill warned that the proposed legislation would erode civil liberties by imposing compulsory treatment on people who had done no wrong and would not benefit from it. Mental health campaigners said ministers should redraft their plans in light of the pre-legislative committee's report, published today." See also Call to reform mental health plan (BBC) and the page at politics.co.uk on the draft mental health bill.