Health Policy Report Rounds Up Midwestern States’ Action on Health-Related Spending Bills

Several Midwestern states this week considered health-related spending bills, including the following:

• Minnesota: The state Senate and House have made "reducing the number of nursing home beds and increasing the scope of community health care for seniors" the "top priorit[ies]" in their spending bills (Hopfensperger et al., Minneapolis Star Tribune, 4/26). The state Senate bill would spend a portion of its $340 million in new spending to increase wages to health care workers, awarding them a 3% cost-of-living increase in each of the next two years, and also would give a 0.5% increase to health care administrators to spend on facility needs (O'Connor, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 4/25). The Senate bill would also expand MinnesotaCare, the state's subsidized insurance program, by waiving premiums for children whose parents earn up to 225% of the federal poverty line -- about $40,000 annually for a family of four. In addition, the measure would increase dental care access for MinnesotaCare beneficiaries and cover breast and cervical cancer treatment for uninsured women (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 4/26). Meanwhile, the state House's $6.3 billion bill would spend $135 million for new initiatives, such as a 3% cost-of-living increase over the next two years to the state's nursing homes, and establish a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions (St. Paul Pioneer Press, 4/25). The House bill also would expand Medicaid eligibility and deny family planning and teen pregnancy prevention funding for community agencies that provide abortion services. A separate Senate bill would establish a prescription drug rebate program, which would allow people without prescription drug coverage to receive discounted Medicaid rates on drugs (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 4/26).
• Missouri: State legislators last week gave "final approval" to a stopgap budget that would use $127 million in tobacco settlement funds to cover a "costlier-than-expected prescription drug tax credit." The tax credit, enacted in 1999 to cover up to $200 in seniors' drug expenditures, cost about $89 million, far more than the expected $20 million. State officials acknowledge that the credit was given to some elderly residents who did not request it -- the state expected only 130,500 people to use the credit, but 452,294 people received it (Bellamy, AP/Kansas City Star, 4/18).
• Wisconsin: One day after Gov. Scott McCallum (R) announced that the budget he introduced two months ago is now $500 million "out of balance" because of "softening tax collections," more than 1,500 advocates for seniors and people with disabilities rallied at the state Capitol for improved access to health care, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The rally was organized by the Wisconsin Survival Coalition, a group spearheading an effort to end waiting lists for treatment for the developmentally disabled. Gerald Born, executive director of the Arc-Wisconsin Disability Association, said that those on waiting lists for services include 2,500 physically disabled individuals, 2,500 children who need family support services, 5,000 developmentally disabled individuals and 5,000 elderly seeking in-home services (Chaptman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/25).