Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Medicaid News in California, Illinois, Mississippi

Summaries of recent news about Medicaid programs in California, Illinois and Mississippi appear below.

• California: Health care advocacy groups are concerned that a plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to require Medi-Cal beneficiaries to verify their eligibility four times annually will result in eligible state residents losing coverage, the AP/Sacramento Bee reports. Under current rules for Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid program, adult beneficiaries must update their eligibility forms twice per year, and children's eligibility must be verified annually. Medi-Cal beneficiaries who do not update their eligibility will be given one warning before they are dropped from the program, according to Schwarzenegger's plan. California officials estimate that the plan could save $70 million next year. Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, said, "The intent of that proposal is that a percentage of those families on Medi-Cal will for some reason not fill out the paperwork and fall off the coverage, though they remain eligible." The California Budget Project, a nonpartisan policy analysis group, said 470,000 eligible children could lose coverage because of language or other issues tied to the increases in paperwork. Ellen Wu -- president of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, a not-for-profit advocacy group -- said the updates could create difficulties for the 3.5 million Hispanic Medi-Cal beneficiaries and other ethnic groups that might face language barriers. Kirk Feely, a health analyst with the state Legislative Analyst's Office, said, "It's not something that absent the fiscal crisis we'd be pushing for, but it's preferable to actually reducing eligibility by doing things like lowering the income levels that are eligible for the program (Mohajer, AP/Sacramento Bee, 6/1).
  
  
• Illinois: The state Senate on Saturday sent a bill to Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) that would increase funding for state hospitals that provide care to a large number of Medicaid beneficiaries, the Chicago Tribune reports. The measure was approved unanimously by the state Legislature. Under the bill, the state would provide $640 million annually over a period of five years to hospitals that treat Medicaid beneficiaries and an additional $130 million annually for general health care spending in the state. The measure would be financed by federal funds and taxes on state hospitals. State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D), the bill's sponsor, said that without the additional funding, hospitals that treat large numbers of low-income individuals and Medicaid beneficiaries would be "threatened with either closing their doors or severely reducing their services" (Wiehle, Chicago Tribune, 5/31).
  
  
• Mississippi: The state House on Thursday voted 55-53 to reject a bill (HB 17) that would have increased state taxes on cigarettes, liquor and wine to fund an expansion of Medicaid, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. The measure needed 65 votes to pass the House before the Senate could consider it. The bill would have increased the cigarette tax by 18 cents to $1 per pack and increased the liquor and wine tax by 1%. The tax increases would have been combined with a hospital tax -- which is supported by Gov. Haley Barbour (R), the Senate and officials of the Mississippi Hospital Association -- to address a $90 million deficit in the program (Chandler, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 5/30).