Federal Funds fill Medicaid Shortfall
9/9/2008 7:03:53 AM
Daily Journal
BY
BOBBY HARRISON
Daily Journal Jackson Bureau
JACKSON - Mississippi's $90 million Medicaid deficit has been solved for
another year without raising anybody's taxes.
The state since October 2003 has been paying to the federal government more than it should to provide health care for certain Medicaid recipients. The reimbursement from the federal government, which was agreed to Friday, provides to money to cover the deficit for the current year.
For much of the summer, the Legislature and Barbour have been haggling over how to solve the deficit. The Legislature was in special session for several weeks this summer at an expense of about $610,000 without reaching an agreement.
The Senate and Barbour supported taxing hospitals, while the House leaders supported increasing the cigarette tax, though they said they would agree to a combination of hospital and cigarette taxes.
The issue also has been debated in the courts. Twice Mississippi hospitals were successful in court blocking Barbour's efforts to deal with the deficit without legislative approval.
In a news conference Monday announcing the solution, Barbour blamed the accounting error on former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who is currently challenging Republican Roger Wicker for the U.S. Senate. Wicker is serving in the seat as an appointee of Barbour.
"While it is irritating to me, frankly, that we continue to find major problems in Medicaid finances, all dating back to the Musgrove administration, I do appreciate the efforts of staff at the Division of Medicaid in ferreting them out," Barbour said. "This is the third problem from the Musgrove administration with a combined impact on state finances of hundreds of millions of dollars."
Barbour said the accounting error started in October 2003 at the end of Musgrove's tenure.
Musgrove spokesman Adam Bozzi said, "It defies credibility that Haley Barbour is still trying to pass the buck on his Medicaid failures. It is time for him to take responsibility for his administration.
"Haley Barbour has been governor for five years and his administration has signed off on these payments again and again and again."
At the news conference, Barbour said this is the fourth consecutive year that the deficit has been solved with one-time federal money. In the other years, it was covered by Hurricane Katrina funds.
"It would be irresponsible to think another rabbit will jump out of the hat for our budget," he said. "It is, therefore, essential the Legislature finally enact a fair, permanent, sustainable solution to funding the state share of Medicaid."
Barbour said he still believes the solution should be a tax on hospitals. But House Medicaid Committee Chairman Dirk Dedeaux, D-Gulfport, said the House leadership still thinks the solution should include higher cigarette taxes.
Medicaid is a federal-state program that provides health care to about 600,000 elderly, disabled and poor pregnant women and children.
The hospitals had said Barbour's most recent proposal to solve the deficit by taxing them would have hurt their ability to provide care for Medicaid recipients. They also said some hospitals would have had to close.
While Barbour defended his plan, the discovery of the error and the federal reimbursement will mean that it will not be enacted.
Contact Bobby Harrison at (601) 353-3119 or bobby.harrison@djournal.com. Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 9/9/2008, section A , page 1