Monday, October 13, 2003

Oregon Health Plan is in critical condition
Feature article in the Statesman Journal - "The fate of the Oregon Health Plan remains unsettled, even after state lawmakers found ways to preserve the pioneering program that delivers health care to 400,000 low-income Oregonians. Because key changes do not conform with Medicaid regulations, the federal government must grant a waiver before the retooled health plan can go into effect. ... Contingent on federal approval, by early next year, the standard plan will resume covering mental-health counseling and addictions treatment."  
  

States have put more limits on Medicaid health coverage
Story in the Statesman Journal - "With no economic relief in sight, all 50 states and the District of Columbia again are restricting health-care spending for poor women, children, elderly adults and the disabled, according to a study released last month. Many states already had made it harder or more expensive for low-income families to get free or low-cost health insurance through the $257 billion Medicaid program. The comprehensive survey, conducted by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, found that state legislatures again tightened their health-care safety-net programs in the fiscal year 2004, which already has begun for states. States’ fiscal crisis is putting health care for low-income families and the elderly and disabled at risk, said Diane Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser commission." See also the Septmber 30 PULSE item for links to the Kaiser Commission reports and last Friday's posting on Rowland's testimony in Congress.