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Panel Will Try to Curb Medicaid State Sen. Don Pederson Says Spending on the Program is Outpacing the State's Capacity to Meet Other Obligations.Medicaid Basics

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

LINCOLN -- Ten Nebraskans will set out Wednesday on a quest to stop Medicaid from becoming the monster that ate the state government's budget.

Leaders of the new Medicaid Reform Advisory Council are optimistic.

But the path is littered with the remains of previous state, federal and private Medicaid-taming expeditions. And the statefederal program has kept on growing.

"It's eating us alive," said State Sen. Don Pederson of North Platte, who has been asked to be chairman of the council. "Medicaid, at the present rate of growth, is outpacing our capacity to meet our other obligations."

Pederson, chairman of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, knows the numbers.

Nebraska's Medicaid program has been growing faster than any other part of the state budget for 20 years.

In fiscal year 1983-84, Medicaid claimed 6.2 percent of total state spending. By fiscal year 2003-04, it claimed 15.2 percent.

Projections for the next 20 years show that Medicaid and state aid to schools would slowly squeeze out all other state needs.

The trend convinced lawmakers to pass Legislative Bill 709 this year.

That bill directs two people chosen by the governor and the chairman of the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee to develop a Medicaid reform plan.

The two chosen were Richard Nelson, director of Health and Human Services Finance and Support, and Jeff Santema, legal counsel to the Health and Human Services Committee. Their plan is due Dec. 1.

The bill also created an advisory council to review progress on the plan and offer recommendations on the plan by Dec. 14. The council's first meeting is Wednesday.

This effort follows several previous attempts at Medicaid reform.

The most recent was a task force that ended a few years ago without issuing recommendations. In 2003, a consultant's study about long-term care reform produced recommendations but no action.

On the national level, ideas for reforming Medicaid have been offered by the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures and various health care think tanks.

A federal commission is tackling the job of cutting $10 billion from the program this year, then looking for longer-term solutions.

In Nebraska, Nelson voices hope that the current effort can find some answers. He said he and Santema have begun collecting information on various aspects of Medicaid in a search for places the program could be made more efficient.

"We are trying to sit down and take a fresh look at the issue. We ought to be able to find some ways to mitigate the growth of Medicaid," he said.

The reform effort also will look at the bigger picture of health care and health insurance.

Danielle Nantkes of the Nebraska Appleseed Center said she hopes the state will seek ways of controlling Medicaid without cutting poor, elderly and disabled people out of their only source of health care coverage.

"When we're talking about Medicaid, we can't look at it in a vacuum," she said.

Medicaid basics

Medicaid is a joint state-federal program that provides health coverage for low-income families and children, elderly people and people with disabilities. It now covers more than one in 10 Nebraskans, including one of every four children. Nebraska spent $1.3 billion on the program in fiscal year 2003-04, of which nearly $400 million came from state tax revenues and the rest from federal dollars.

Source: Omaha World - Herald

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