Hearings On Medicaid Cutbacks Draw A Crowd Lawmakers To Work With Providers In Attempt To Hold Down Costs

Lawmakers considering Medicaid cutbacks will work with health services providers to make the health care program less costly.

“We asked them to provide us with some input, and they’re willing to do that,” said Sen. Robert Lee, R-Rexburg, chairman of a legislative subcommittee that’s looking for ways to trim the soaring budget for Medicaid. The program provides health care for the poor and disabled.

Lee’s announcement came at the third meeting of his subcommittee Tuesday, which had to be moved to the Capitol’s largest hearing room because of an overflow crowd. Before the session, about 300 people, many of them disabled, rallied on the Capitol steps against possible cuts in their services.

“We truly believe that we need to address the spiraling cost of Medicaid,” Katherine Hansen, president of the Idaho Association of Developmental Disabilities Agencies, told the cheering crowd.

She said her group has two recommendations: Don’t cut services, and bring all the interested groups together to find solutions.

Several lawmakers reacted angrily Tuesday to the hundreds of calls and letters they’ve received. Some were from people misinformed about what was being considered.

“My phone didn’t stop ringing,” said Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls. “A lot of this worry was needless. But there is some good that comes from these things.”

Richardson said when he talked with groups that provide Medicaid services, they were very familiar with the services and had suggestions about eliminating duplication and paperwork.

The panel hadn’t sought input earlier, in part because it’s a subcommittee of the Legislature’s budget committee that is merely charged with finding enough savings to balance the budget and slow Medicaid’s growth. The budget committee doesn’t take public testimony, generally just hearing from state agencies and the governor’s office before making its decisions.

The subcommittee must report back to the full budget committee by Feb. 21. Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s budget recommendation for the Health & Welfare Department for the coming year was $39 million below the department’s request. Much of the shortfall is in the fast-growing Medicaid program, for which the state pays 30 percent and the federal government pays 70 percent.

Kempthorne said he didn’t want to cut services - he just wanted efficiencies. But he gave the Legislature no guidance on how to find them.

Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, told the panel that all medical costs are skyrocketing - not just those for Medicaid. Crow, who was vice chairman of a council that studied how to reform Medicaid in 1996, said that group’s 80-plus reforms are just starting to take effect. That was part of the concern of those who rallied before the meeting.

Kelly Buckland, executive director of the Idaho State Independent Living Council, called those reforms “well thought-out,” and said they’ll cut Medicaid costs over time. “We need to stick with the reforms that have been recommended,” Buckland said.

Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene, who serves on the subcommittee, got a stack of letters about the issue eight inches high. “They should have something to say in the process,” he said of those who wrote. “But the hard reality is that we get it from the other end, too. We’re charged with managing the funds, and we only have so many resources.”