Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Did Medicaid take all the money? (Massachusetts)
Opinion column by John E. McDonough in the Boston Globe - "There's a myth around town that the Massachusetts Legislature restored Medicaid coverage for 36,000 desperately low-income people in the 2004 state budget by slashing the rest of state government. On the surface, the evidence is compelling. ... Medicaid spending increases have not had the damaging effects on other state spending that a simple analysis suggests. New federal dollars, restructuring state services to maximize federal revenues, and broader health spending trends are all parts of the real story. .... Rather than looking at which program ''took the money,'' we need to confront how our shrinking fiscal capacity undermines the values we all share."