Batt May Revive Task Force For Medicaid Reform Success Of Welfare Panel May Lead Governor To Use Same Approach Again

Buoyed by the seeming success of his advisory panel on welfare reform, Gov. Phil Batt said on Tuesday he will probably use the same task force approach in dealing with the inevitable reform of the Medicaid system.

But the uncertainty over when - or even if - Congress and President Clinton reach agreement on how the huge health care program will be changed left the governor unsure about just when to put the task force together and set it to work.

“There’d be a case for getting one going now,” Batt said.

“With the uncertainty, they may waste their time a little at first. But we need to get going. The changes are going to be monumental.”

The Welfare Reform Advisory Council’s 44-point plan, produced after about five months of review and public hearings, has been well received and essentially embraced by the governor.

And as complicated as the welfare program is, Batt and Health and Welfare Director Linda Caballero believe turning the federal support for medical care for poor children and disabled or elderly people into a block grant to the state will be 10 times as complex, making it an obvious candidate for the same treatment.

Because there is likely to be no federal agreement by the mid-March deadline legislative leaders have for the 1996 election-year session, legislative action to accommodate eventual federal changes in Medicaid is expected to take place in a special session next summer.

Batt says a special task force could spend the time until federal action is finalized reviewing and analyzing the state’s Medicaid program and then immediately hold hearings around the state once the ground rules have been set by Congress and Clinton.

But Caballero told members of the House and Senate welfare committees earlier in the day that critical issues have already been identified that can be addressed even before a federal agreement is reached, and she urged them not to wait.

The system has to be changed, she warned, or Idaho’s share of the bill will rise from just over $100 million a year now to $800 million a year in 2002.

“The information we have right now points to some serious concerns coming our way,” she said.

While not specific, she said the administration would propose cost-effective or costdeflective alternatives to the current Medicaid programs such as assisted living programs intended to keep people out of more expensive nursing homes.

More than 82,000 people, primarily the elderly, disabled and children, receive Medicaid benefits each month at an annual cost of nearly $330 million.

Almost a third of that was spent on long-term nursing care for the elderly last year.