Session Wrap: Key Medicaid Services Reinstated

Scott Ki / Boise State Public Radio

Medicaid recipients and advocates turned out to testify at a February hearing.

A bill that cut nearly $100 million in combined state and federal Medicaid spending was a flashpoint of last year’s legislative session.  This year, the question was whether the Legislature would reinstate any of that funding and, if so, how much.

Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter kept mum about state health and welfare spending in his State of the State and Budget Address.  Meanwhile, advocates for people with developmental disabilities and mental illness kept pushing.

They held a roundtable discussion and press conference weeks after the session got underway.  In early February, the effects of the Medicaid cuts were a main focus of a public hearing on the state budget. In the end, the pressure paid off.

In late February, news came of a plan in the works to reverse specific service reductions, at a cost of about $1.5 million.  Namely, the bill reinstated preventative and restorative dental services for adults who are eligible for an institutional level of care through Medicaid.  It also reversed a cut that forced people with dual diagnoses to choose between receiving skill training for a mental illness or for a developmental disability.  Finally, it did away with a plan to impose a tiered budgeting system on developmentally disabled adults.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted to include those changes in the Medicaid budget, which won the support of the full Legislature.

Rep. Wendy Jaquet (D-Ketchum) says the legislature managed to address the most critical problems that have arisen in the wake of the 2011 Medicaid cuts, something she didn’t predict at the start of the 2012 session.

“Quite frankly, when the governor made his budget speech, I didn’t think we were going to restore anything in the health and welfare budget,” she said.  “I was really pleased to see JFAC go forward.  We were concerned he might veto something, so we were walking, I thought, a fine line.”

Division of Financial Management Administrator Wayne Hammon says Gov. Otter is satisfied with the Legislature’s work to correct key aspects of the 2011 cuts.  “The governor has no problem with that additional funding,” Hammon said.  “He was consulted ahead of time and we gave [the Legislature] our blessing.”