Brewer to Baucus: No more health care mandates

As U.S. Sen. Max Baucus strives to reach a middle ground on changes to the nation’s health care system, Gov. Jan Brewer is urging him not to place an undue financial burden on states such as Arizona that are already struggling.

Brewer on Oct. 6 sent a letter to the Montana Democrat, who sponsored a health care bill that would expand Medicaid eligibility and provide health care coverage for 94 percent of Americans. But Brewer cautioned Baucus against expanding Medicaid coverage at a time when Arizona will have to reduce Medicaid reimbursement by more than $300 million to help deal with massive budget shortfalls.

Brewer wrote that Arizona is sacrificing other state programs involving education, health and safety for children and seniors to help cover the growing costs of Medicaid.

“Considering this, it is incomprehensible that Congress is contemplating an enormous unfunded entitlement mandate on the states. The disconnect between policymakers in Washington and the reality of state and local governments is disheartening,” Brewer wrote to Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

Brewer pointed out that Arizona already has expanded Medicaid coverage to all residents with incomes under the federal poverty level.

“This decisions means that, under your proposal, our state will be unable to take advantage of the higher level of federal funding that will be provided to states that have not enacted similar expansions. In essence, the chairman’s mark penalizes Arizona for its early coverage of non-traditional Medicaid populations, like childless adults,” she wrote.