Several States Facing Medicaid Budget Deficits, Increasing Costs

The following summarizes recent news on four states' Medicaid programs.

• Colorado: The state's Medicaid costs will rise about $108.3 million to $1.95 billion in the next fiscal year because of increasing enrollment and rising medical costs, fiscal analyst Melodie Jones told lawmakers in a daylong meeting on the budget for the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reports. In fiscal year 2004-2005, total Medicaid enrollment is expected to be 373,467, an increase of 20,379 over 2003-2004, according to the News. Budget writers made no decisions during the meeting; they are expected to meet with department head Karen Reinertson later this month (Sanko, Denver Rocky Mountain News, 12/9).
  
  
• Idaho: An 8% to 12% increase in health costs and a similar rise in Medicaid enrollment will contribute to an estimated $40 million increase in the state's Medicaid spending in the coming fiscal year, state Health and Welfare Director Karl Kurtz said, the Idaho Statesman reports. Kurtz plans to warn the state Legislature that the costs will come unless lawmakers alter Medicaid benefits or eligibility requirements (Hahn, Idaho Statesman, 12/5).
  
  
• Georgia: The state's Medicaid program is facing a budget shortfall of almost $200 million in the next fiscal year, and officials are looking for ways to reform the program, the Augusta Chronicle reports. The state has cut the program's budget by about $90 million in the last three years, and lawmakers said they will not authorize any new funding unless reforms are enacted. Lawmakers are considering increasing education efforts to improve beneficiaries' health, implementing a sliding scale to charge higher-income beneficiaries higher fees to receive care and other options. Gov. Mark Sanford (R) also plans to release a Medicaid reform plan that includes changes in eligibility standards (Gelinas, August Chronicle, 12/8).
  
  
• New York state: State Comptroller Alan Hevesi last week said that to help close an expected $5 billion to $6 billion state budget deficit, lawmakers will have to "rol[l] back the state's expansive Medicaid program," the New York Post reports. "I think that there are a number of (Medicaid) services provided that are wonderful to have when you have money. But when you don't have money, you have to freeze and cut back ... and you have to then triage," he said (Lovett, New York Post, 12/5). Meanwhile, counties in New York, which share with the state the cost of the Medicaid program, are considering tax increases or reducing benefits service to make up for rising Medicaid expenses, the AP/Albany Times-Union reports (Hill, AP/Albany Times-Union, 12/7).