{"id":43173,"date":"2019-02-13T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/proposed-medicaid-health-care-cuts-spark-outrage\/"},"modified":"2019-02-15T10:19:53","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T19:19:53","slug":"proposed-medicaid-health-care-cuts-spark-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/proposed-medicaid-health-care-cuts-spark-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Medicaid, health care cuts spark outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the day their budget proposal was released, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Office of Budget and Management Director Donna Arduin repeatedly said this budget will affect all Alaskans.<\/p>\n<p>Many lawmakers and health care experts agreed &mdash; but did so in a different tone. Particularly as a result of the governor&rsquo;s plan to make cuts to Medicaid, many agreed Wednesday that seniors and those in need of affordable health care would be negatively affected by the cuts.<\/p>\n<p>The amended budget proposes more than $1.6 billion in cuts, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omb.alaska.gov\/ombfiles\/20_budget\/HSS\/Amend\/20compsummary_ugf_hss.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a $271 million cut to Medicaid<\/a>. That&rsquo;s nearly a 40 percent decrease from last year&rsquo;s budget, according to OMB budget documents released Wednesday. The budget proposal lists a 31 percent decrease in Department of Health and Social Services funding.<\/p>\n<p>More than a quarter of Alaskans benefit from Medicaid, according to a release from the Dunleavy administration Wednesday. According to DHSS statistics, nearly 20,000 people in Southeast are Medicaid enrollees (the department didn&rsquo;t have the number of Juneau-specific enrollees).<\/p>\n<p>The release states that the governor believes the state&rsquo;s Medicaid program is &ldquo;not financially sustainable&rdquo; in its current form.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The commissioner is working with the Centers for Medicaid Services and we&rsquo;ll propose legislation to restructure the program,&rdquo; Arduin said in a press conference Wednesday, though she didn&rsquo;t give specifics on what that restructuring will look like.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"DV-viewer-5737425-01-2019-MedicaidDashboard-Rpt\" class=\"DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container\"><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/viewer\/loader.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<script>\n  DV.load(\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/5737425-01-2019-MedicaidDashboard-Rpt.js\", {\n  responsive: true,\n    container: \"#DV-viewer-5737425-01-2019-MedicaidDashboard-Rpt\"\n  });\n<\/script><br \/>\n<noscript><br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/5737425\/01-2019-MedicaidDashboard-Rpt.pdf\">01 2019 MedicaidDashboard Rpt (PDF)<\/a><br \/>\n  <br \/>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/5737425\/01-2019-MedicaidDashboard-Rpt.txt\">01 2019 MedicaidDashboard Rpt (Text)<\/a><br \/>\n<\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Those in the health care field were immediately critical of the governor&rsquo;s cuts to health care services in the state. Becky Hultberg, CEO and president of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association (ASHNHA) said in a press release that the governor&rsquo;s budget is &ldquo;outrageous&rdquo; and that hospitals will close, health care specialists will leave the state and a decrease in addiction and behavioral health treatment might lead to more crime.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;While Gov. Dunleavy may not believe government has a role in health care, his belief is disconnected from the reality that our current health care system relies on government payments for a significant percentage of total services, and our entire system will crumble without them,&rdquo; Hultberg said in the release. &ldquo;This is a classic example of ideology taking precedent over practicality, and all Alaskans will feel the consequences.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Gov. Bill Walker&rsquo;s administration expanded Medicaid access. According to DHSS, there are more than 47,000 people statewide who are enrolled in Medicaid as a result of the 2015 expansion. If Alaska repeals or reverses this Medicaid expansion, it would be the first time ever that a state reversed or repealed the expansion of coverage for low-income adults, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.modernhealthcare.com\/article\/20181108\/NEWS\/181109923\" target=\"_blank\">a November report from Modern Healthcare<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dunleavy said during his press conference Wednesday that there is nothing in the budget proposal that calls specifically for a Medicaid repeal. Mike Barnhill, a policy director at OMB, said during a press conference earlier in the day that the long-term vision for Medicaid in the state isn&rsquo;t necessarily to totally get rid of coverage.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;At this point, there&rsquo;s no proposal to eliminate coverage for any population,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s reducing provider rates and finding a new way to providing coverage at a reduced cost to the state.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>During his gubernatorial campaign, Dunleavy was critical of Medicaid expansion. Critics of the expansion have said the state spends too much money on residents already and that people who don&rsquo;t need medical coverage might be taking advantage of easier access to Medicaid.<\/p>\n<p><ins>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/letters\/opinion-medicaid-expansion-is-out-of-control\/\" target=\"_blank\">Opinion: Medicaid expansion is out of control<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n<p>Democratic lawmakers, including were vehemently opposed to many of the items in the proposed budget, according to a series of statements in a press release. Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin, was particularly incensed at the 31 percent cut to DHSS.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The draconian cuts to the Health &#038; Social Services budget are not just an attempt to dismantle Medicaid and Alaska&rsquo;s health care system but is an outright full assault against those who are the most vulnerable; the young and the elderly,&rdquo; Olson said in the release. &ldquo;It deepens the divide between the haves and the have nots. It strikes rural Alaskans more acutely, forcing them to leave their communities and head to the metropolitan center.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>\u2022 Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.<\/b><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/health\/\">health<\/a> care advocate called the budget proposal &ldquo;outrageous.&rdquo; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":43174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[34,230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-43173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43173"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=43173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}