States continue push for extension of extra Medicaid funds

News outlets report on state budget gaps and lobbying for extra Medicaid funds from the federal government.

Bloomberg: "U.S. state governments project revenue will climb in the current fiscal year after they raised taxes and cut spending to close budget gaps of $84 billion, a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures found." But "deficits of more than $12 billion may open for at least 29 states should Congress fail to extend extra aid, while two-thirds already forecast fiscal 2012 gaps of $72 billion, according to the conference's survey." Governors continue to push Congress to extend the additional Medicaid funding "that they received under the economic stimulus legislation passed last year. That aid is set to lapse at year-end, which would force states that anticipated receiving it, including California and New York, to make deeper spending cuts to close that gap" (Selway, 7/27). 

Nevada News Bureau: "Nevada state Budget Director Andrew Clinger reported earlier this month that state revenues are now projected to come in at about $100 million more than estimated by the end of the 2011 fiscal year on June 30, 2011. This additional revenue will help Nevada deal with the loss of $88.5 million in federal revenues that had been counted on by the Legislature from an extension of enhanced Medicaid funding" (Whaley, 7/27).

Kansas Health Institute: "With Congress poised to take its August recess in a few days, the union that represents state workers in Kansas is urging its members to contact U.S. senators to push for a vote on extended federal Medicaid assistance for states. The Kansas Organization of State Employees (KOSE) sent an email alert Tuesday to members asking them to "keep the pressure," on senators so that they will vote on the so-called FMAP extension before leaving Washington for late-summer break… Kansas is among about 30 states that have already crafted budgets assuming Congress would approve the extra Medicaid help. So, the Sunflower State faces a potential $131 million budget hole, if Congress fails to act" (7/27).

The Augusta [Georgia] Chronicle: "Health care workers rallied at an Augusta nursing home Tuesday to call on Congress to pass an extension of increased Medicaid funding, which many nursing home patients rely on. Georgia already had counted on $375 million of that extra Medicaid funding in its budget for this fiscal year, so state agencies such as the Medical College of Georgia are facing a 4 percent withholding of funds and being asked to make contingency plans for cuts twice that big" (Corwin, 7/27).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.