Medicaid—the budget’s Pac-Man
By Dan Liljenquist
Utah State Senator
Ten years ago, Medicaid required 9% of the state’s funds. This year Medicaid ate up 18%. By 2020, just nine years from now, 36% of our budget will be directly allocated to Medicaid. Medicaid’s growth rate truly is just chomping up the state’s available funds.
Right now, 60% of the budget funds education. If that portion remains consistent through 2020, and we are committed to paying 36% to fund Medicaid, then we are left with the remaining 4% of the state’s budget to take care of everything—everything else.
If we end up being forced to follow the Obama-Care path, the projections are even worse. Forecast calculations indicate that by 2020, when all the mandates are implemented, Utah could be spending just under half of its annual budget on Medicaid funding.
This legislation sets a framework for a Medicaid waiver that does three things:
First, it prioritizes managed Medicaid over the traditional “fee for services” type of payments.
Second, it places caps on Medicaid spending.
Third, it creates a Medicaid specific rainy day fund.
Without the waiver, we have nothing but extreme options left. In reality, the number we are looking at if the current course is sustained is somewhere between 500 million and a billion dollars in additional funding. Coming up with that sort of money will force us to take tremendous and somewhat unimaginable measures. We will either need to raise taxes substantially, lay off 20,000 school teachers, close down three of our Universities, make extreme cuts to Medicaid rates or opt out of Medicaid entirely, as some other states are considering at this very minute.
[Update:] New Video by Senator Liljenquist | Sixty Seconds on Medicaid Reform
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Utah State Senate, utahpolitics and utahpolitics, Marie Nuccitelli. Marie Nuccitelli said: good insights from @SenatorDanL RT @utahsenate Medicaid—the budget’s Pac-Man http://bit.ly/fTT93s #utpol #hcr [...]
I worked at a call center for Humana for about a year. Some of the calls coming in where from people that had come in from other countries and now where bringing there parents and grandparents to America. They could quilify for medicaid because they ‘didn’t own a home’. Of course not, they just came from another country, but Americans do not qualify for it because they have spent all their lives working to buy one, so they don’t qualify. It brought me to tears to hear some of their stories, while people that had not paid a dime into out economy where eligable for relief. I think you need to look into who is getting medicaid and start there. Are all foreigner eligable while Americans are not. They are bringing in a lot of people to take advantage of out system.
I agree! I also worked in a capacity where I saw many low-income Americans who could not qualify, but so many foreigners and refugees were given benefits. That type of system is not sustainable!
[...] our guest legislator will be Senator Dan Liljenquist on Medicaid reforms. Tonight, I’ll be absent, but Michael will be joined by guest host Andy Rasmussen, part of [...]
No program, Federal or otherwise should be open or available to anyone who is not a citizen of the U.S., medicaid included. That would solve most, if not all of our budget problems. Everyone complains about the lack of money for education, yet we continue to educate illegal aliens. Why? What is wrong with this picture? I’m sure no other country is willing to provide food, medical care, housing and education for free to those who are not their citizens. Again, I’m sure the U.S. budget problems and Utah’s budget problems in particular, would be solved if our tax dollars were not being spent on illegals. Deport them all. They broke the law and they are criminals.
[...] of you may remember him from 2010′s pension reforms. Liljenquist will join us to discuss his proposed reforms, and take your questions. Some of mine: Caps on Medicaid spending can control the state’s [...]
I learned you can make numbers tell you what you what you want them too. I believe these numbers are trying to scare us. Ten years ago Medicaid ate up 9%. This year it ate up 18%. 10 years ago we didn’t have a recession and a jobless rate that we have this year. Ten years from now no one knows what is going to happen. If we still have the same unemployment rate and medical expenses keep going up like they are, it may be 36%.
On the other hand if insurance was more affordable, medical expenses came down, most everyone had insurance and there were enough good paying jobs, we cut Medicaid waste, fraud and unnecessary procedures, Medicaid could go down to 3%.
If we cut medicaid people are still going to get sick, they are still going to go the the emergency room and the doctor bills are still going to have to be paid. Who is going to pay those cost? We are. We are going to pay for it one way or another. If we are going to pay for it lets look for ways to cut the expenses. I would be unable to tell a five year old child with a broken arm that he can’t get it fix in Utah because he is here illegally.
Like Obama’s health care bill, it’s not the best, but it is a start. Something has to be done.
[...] about his medicaid bill to rest. The senator has discussed his medicaid reform ideas before here on the Senate Site, in committee (on Feb 10th), and in the Senate Daily Media Discussion (we’ll add the link [...]
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