Idaho Medicaid Program Costs Could Reach $1B in FY 2004

In an Idaho Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee hearing this week, Karl Kurtz, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said that the state's Medicaid program has "grown beyond expectations" and could top $1 billion in costs in the next fiscal year, the Idaho Statesman reports. Kurtz said that the program currently has enrolled 167,000 beneficiaries, compared with a projected 159,000 beneficiaries for fiscal year 2003-04, which began July 1. The higher number of beneficiaries will increase the program's cost to about $940 million from almost $890 million, which will cost the state an additional $15 million, Kurtz said. According to Kurtz, there will be another "sizable increase" in the Medicaid program of about 25,000 new beneficiaries in fiscal year 2004-05, which could cause the cost of the program to increase to about $1.5 billion, the Statesman reports. Kurtz said that the increases are caused by a weak economy, along with the Legislature's creation last winter of a new program, called the Access Card program. The program will be funded by the state's tax on insurance premiums and could cover about 5,600 children. Such a plan "invariably adds people to the traditional Medicaid program, as well," Kurtz said, the Statesman reports. The projected increase in Medicaid costs prompted some budget committee members to call for cuts in Medicaid spending; however, only a few lawmakers have actually "been willing to venture there" and "few expect major changes on the horizon," the Statesman reports (Hoffman, Idaho Statesman, 9/26).