LANSING ? The only way the state is going to have any room to make significant cuts in state Medicaid spending is to see those dollars replaced with more federal funding, said Governor Jennifer Granholm at a press briefing on the subject Tuesday.
Granholm and Community Health Director Janet Olszewski said the state had already found most of the savings available in the Medicaid program without cutting into individual eligibility or services to the poor.
“I think there are areas to seek additional flexibility from the federal government on,” Granholm said. “We need some indication from (Congress) that they’re willing to help us and not make Medicaid a budget issue.”
Granholm traveled to Washington on Wednesday to meet with 12 other governors to urge President George Bush and congressional leaders not to shift more Medicaid costs to the states. The governors are concerned that Medicaid funding will be one of the targets as Congress works to again balance the federal budget.
Cuts to federal funds, especially without any changes in the overall health care industry or in the services required under Medicaid, means shifting more expenses to the states, Granholm said. “The whole cascading effect is education gets cut or prisons get cut and that’s not healthy for the state overall,” she said.
Olszewski said the only recipients who could be cut from the program are some parents receiving benefits and the few childless adults still receiving benefits. All of the rest of the recipients must be offered services under federal law.
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