Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Michigan Governor Vetoes Bills Designed To Repair Flaws In State's Medicaid Funding
Detroit News: Snyder Vetoes Health Funding Tax Reforms
Gov. Rick Snyder has vetoed a package of bills Thursday that would have overhauled how health insurers are taxed and shifted how the state’s health care program for low-income individuals is funded. The legislation would have ended a tax on health insurance claims assessments 18 months earlier than the tax’s termination planned under a measure the Legislature passed earlier this year. Snyder said in a statement that helped prompt the veto. (Gerstein, 10/27)
MLive: Gov. Snyder Vetoes Bills On Medicaid Matching Dollars
Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday vetoed a package of bills that aimed to end the state's Health Insurance Claims Assessment and change how the state funds Medicaid matching dollars. ... Michigan does that now through a mix of the HICA and a Medicaid managed care use tax. But the federal government has signaled that the current Medicaid managed care use tax collects from too narrow of a base and will no longer be acceptable at the end of 2016. If Michigan does nothing, it could see its Medicaid payments reduced. (Lawler, 10/27)
California Healthline: Divided Mental Health Care System Can Strand Medi-Cal Patients In The Middle
For low-income Californians enrolled in the state’s Medi-Cal program, mental health care is divided. Managed care plans are responsible for covering people with mild to moderate conditions, while county mental health departments treat those with more serious illnesses. This means that if people have a serious mental illness and then stabilize, they are expected to switch providers, which doesn’t make sense and is not common practice in other areas of medicine, said Bill Walker, Kern County’s director of mental health. “We don’t do that with diabetes or high blood pressure,” he said. “But we do it with psychiatric issues.” (Gorman, 10/28)
