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Governor may cut home health care
A home health care worker combs the hair of an elderly man after shaving him in his home in Miami, Fla.
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TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Even though the recession is waning, states are still trying to come to grips with enormous budget deficits. They've cut hundreds of programs to fill their budget gaps. Some of the biggest cuts have come from health care. Lawsuits have forced states to keep the money in place. But California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's just about had it. So tomorrow, he's going to try something new: Get rid of the programs entirely.
Jeff Horwich reports.
Jeff Horwich: Home health care for the elderly, insurance subsidies for poor pregnant women. Even states in serious budget trouble don't usually consider killing benefits like these -- especially when they come with big federal money attached. Much better to trim a little all around, spread the pain.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says California tried that.
Aaron McLear: Federal judges have kind of tied our hands in our ability to have flexibility to make some cuts. They've basically said that we can't cut back on certain programs, but we can eliminate them.
So tomorrow, the governor will announce which health care programs are simply going to disappear.
McLear: Without raising taxes you have to cut programs. It's simple math.
Actually, a little simple math might get California and other states out of this particular mess. Edwin Park is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He says courts have mostly rejected the cuts on technicalities.
Edwin Park: The courts have found the state in a number of these rate reductions failed to do the necessary analysis, and those kinds of studies weren't done.
Even if California lawmakers go along, Park can't believe Schwarzenegger will forfeit the huge streams of Medicaid dollars or jeopardize the benefits of federal health care reform. Not to mention...
Park: So many millions of families, seniors and people with disabilities rely on the program in some form or another.
Today, Schwarzenegger also announced his Plan B: An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, joined by 22 other states, to restore the original, more gentle, cuts.
I'm Jeff Horwich for Marketplace.
why does it always have to be the poor and disable people that get the cut.. i am totally disabled and not of my own chosing ..has the governor ever tried to live on 800 to 1100 a month its not easy thats for sure..i feel the drug addicts should be healed liable they shouldnt be given medical care and if they pop positive for any drug that is not scripted they should be taken off any medi` cal program there is .. they are the ones that are abusing the medi`cal system not us..victor valley hospital is full of drug addicts that come in every few days to get their fix that the hospital takes in due to the hospital gets paid for these flakes to come in..i have a friend that works there and this is the frustration that the nurses encounters every time they work there.. this is wrong in my opionion.. there are cuts that can be made that dont involved the disabled or poor people..my 2 cents
having in home care for disabled and elderly is a lot cheaper and better than nursing home care which is very expensive - my severely handicapped son is in a group home paid for by state - and he would have to go into a nursing home where his quality of care would be a lot less
Disappointing regarding priorites. Elderly people who have paid into the system their entire lives are targeted. Yet, this governor does not have the spine to stand up to illegal immigration, costing countless billions in various forms of state welfare.
Wow, cutting these programs will only rob Peter to pay Paul. My experience is that those on the right who complain the most about entitlement programs are the very first ones in line to get their fair share.. Thanks to the right, no one can have a reasonable and rational discussion to address these issues because they cannot NOT politicize everything. The "left's cherished programs", indeed!!! That's the kind of dig that guarantees a closed ear from the other side.
Home care for the elderly and disabled should not be cut. I have a sister that is home bound and rarely gets out except to go to the doctor. She takes a lift bus for that. Now I hear that may be going. Do we have no love or respect for our elderly?I pray he opens his heart hears the people's need
Good for Governor Schwarzenegger! A lot of these programs, particularly in California, are things that *government shouldn't be doing in the first place.* But he's hardly the first governor, even this year, to cut the Left's cherished programs; you should do a story on New Jersey's Governor Christie.
