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Medicaid, Long-Term Care Among Top Issues For
Nation’s Governors
The governors ended their meeting in Washington with
Medicaid funding unresolved
 March
2, 2005 - The nation’s governors ended four days of meetings in
Washington, D.C., pressed into action on three fronts: that impact
senior citizens - crafting a bipartisan plan to revamp Medicaid, urging
legislation enabling seniors to pre-pay for long-term care and making
health records more high tech. Another top priority for the governors is
making high school more demanding, according to a report by Pamela M.
Prah in
Stateline.org.
Following is the report on the meeting by Prah.
Education and health care, which make up nearly
half of each state’s budget, dominated the National Governors
Association’s annual winter meeting, which concluded March 1.
Specifically, states’ top executives left the
nation’s capital united in their opposition to cuts in the amount of
money the federal government gives states for health care programs for
the poor and prepared to negotiate with the Bush administration to fix
the state-federal Medicaid program. Plus, they ended their 2005 National
Education Summit on High Schools eager to end the free ride that many
high school students enjoy before graduation.
“We’ve had an extraordinary four days,” Virginia
Gov. Mark Warner (D), chairman of the National Governors Association,
said as he closed the annual meeting.
Here are highlights of this year’s NGA winter in
Washington:
Medicaid: The pressure is on the
governors to come up with a bipartisan plan to fix Medicaid, the
state-federal health care program for 52 million poor and disabled
Americans. The White House pledged to work with the governors, but
lawmakers on Capitol Hill have not shown much interest in restructuring
Medicaid, so governors have their work cut out for them. Biggest
sticking point: The president is sticking to his plan to cut $40 billion
over 10 years in federal funds that go to states.
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Nursing homes: The governors agreed
to prod Congress to pass legislation that allows states to create
special programs enabling seniors to pre-pay for long-term care and that
guarantees the state will pick up costs if policy benefits run out.
Currently, only four states have the federal government’s blessing to
operate such plans.
Technology: Governors looked to cut
costs by making health records more high-tech. Governors heard from a
Virginia hospital that put bar codes on medications and on patients’
bracelets to avoid medication errors and from a Massachusetts “e-health”
program that allows the sharing of patients’ insurance data with
health-care providers.
Education: Thirteen states promised
to raise the academic bar in their high schools and better prepare
students for college and the workforce: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas. The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation pitched in the first $15 million of $23 million from
nonprofit foundations for matching grants to help states improve high
schools.
Homeland security: Governors formally
asked U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to work with them to
outline the National Guard’s changing role in homeland defense,
reiterating their concerns about the strain that ongoing military
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are placing on the Guard at home.
Governors also called on Congress to start providing all National Guard
members with the same health care benefits now given to active military
members and to address pay gaps faced by guardsmen called up for
extensive deployments.
Taxes: Top telecommunications
industry officials met with governors to figure out a system that allows
states to tax telecommunication services, regardless of how the service
is delivered, whether it’s cable, traditional phone lines or the
Internet. Progress was made, but more work lies ahead.
Environment: Western governors urged
Congress to update and modernize the 30-year-old Endangered Species Act
and to change the way the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife decides
which animals to list as endangered.
The governors will convene July 16 in Iowa for
their summer meeting. On tap: an update on how states are faring in
their pledges to reform high schools.
Stateline.org reporters Kathleen Hunter, Kavan
Peterson, Kathleen Murphy and Eric Kelderman contributed to this report.
Send your comments on this story to letters@stateline.org.
Selected reader feedback will be posted in the Letters to the editor
section.
Contact Pamela M. Prah at pprah@stateline.org
See
related Stateline.org stories:
Governors pressed for solutions to Medicaid
States pinched in President Bush’s budget plan for ‘06
States want a say on cyberspace calls
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