Arizona nearly alone in 2010 health-care cuts

Arizona is the only state to cut health insurance for children and one of just two states to reduce services for low-income families, according to a new report.

Even in the depths of the recession, nearly every state managed to maintain Medicaid coverage in 2010 and in some cases expanded it, thanks largely to additional federal funding, according to the 50-state survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Arizona lawmakers froze the KidsCare health-insurance program, effective Jan. 1, 2010, saving $18 million to help balance last year’s budget. Enrollment has since shrunk almost in half, from 40,000 to an estimated 26,000 as of Oct. 1.

During a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Tricia Brooks, a senior fellow at Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, noted Arizona’s denial of certain organ transplants, two recent deaths and Tiffany Tate, who’s in need of a double-lung transplant. Arizona is the only state to eliminate such coverage.

“Tiffany’s story really underscores the need for stronger, not weaker requirements for states to hold steady... and find solutions that don’t include cutting benefits for low-income people,” Brooks said.

Arizona is one of just seven states that provides Medicaid coverage to childless adults. That coverage is targeted by lawmakers this year to bridge a deficit in the next 18 months.

Read the report at: www.kff.org.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/national-news/2011/01/11/study-arizona-nearly-alone-in-2010-health-care-cuts/