Medicaid cuts would drop from $120M to $107.6M

In the end, the House Health & Welfare Committee agreed to remove $4.4 million in state funds of the proposed cuts in the Medicaid cuts bill, HB 221, which also means about $8 million in federal matching funds wouldn’t be given up as they would have been under the original bill. That means the total reduction in Medicaid services would total about $107.6 million, between state and federal funds, rather than $120 million.  The committee was unanimous in backing away from the two most-controversial cuts the bill would have made to services for people with developmental disabilities,  imposing a “retirement age” of 45 on developmental therapy services and removing those services entirely from hundreds of existing patients who don’t qualify for a waiver program, but the panel was divided on most other alterations to the bill. The changes will be written up as a new bill, and lawmakers said it could be introduced as soon as tomorrow.