Governor’s Budget and Health: Promising start

It’s a tough budget year, so it isn’t any surprise that the Governor’s budget today doesn’t contain major new initiatives around health care. (Note – I’m just hitting the highlights in this post.) In fact, there are substantial cuts in many areas. However, there is positive news:

1. Small business tax credits continued. The Governor extends the small business tax credit for offering health insurance of $250 per employee. In addition to new substantial federal tax credits for offering coverage, this will help business deal with skyrocketing health insurance costs.

2. AIDS Drug Assistance Program reopens at 125% of federal poverty level (this is a lower income limit than when it closed at 300% FPL). There are over 400 people on the waiting list for AIDS drug assistance. This change means those with annual incomes below $13,537 on the waiting list will be able to get coverage.

3. NC Health Choice cap is raised to allow enroll enrollment of over 8,000 kids in affordable health coverage.

Cuts to health in the Governor’s budget include some good ideas:

1. Stopping paying for “never events” in inpatient hospital settings. This is a saving that also improves care. A “never event” is an operation or condition that never should have happened in the hospital – like a surgeon removing the wrong leg. Medicare stopped paying for these sorts of events already and NC is right to follow suit.

2. Reducing fraud and waste in Medicaid. The Governor proposes using new technology to catch payment fraud and potential abuse. Good ideas that can save substantial amounts of money.

A cut to health in the Governor’s budget that is questionable:

1. Dental care for adults is limited to emergency care only. This mainly affects older adults and people with serious disabilities. Dental care is an important part of any health care plan and neglecting dental services can lead to other major health problems.

Finally, it’s becoming quite a political football, but cuts to in-home personal care services figure prominently in the Governor’s budget too. I wouldn’t put this one in the category of either good or bad . Our feeling here is that there are people who need these services and we should make very, very sure that only those people who really need these services are getting them. There is clearly a problem with some folks getting services who don’t have the greatest need and this has to stop.