Regarding your Aug. 22 article about the state's plan to cut Medicaid payments yet again next month, we would like to clarify several important issues. The planned 1.35 percent cut would come on top of several steep Medicaid payment reductions over the past year, and it threatens the availability of quality medical care for our state's most vulnerable citizens.
As you have reported, Congress just gave North Carolina $643 million in new stimulus funding for Medicaid and education - $343 million for Medicaid and $300 million for education. That's a whopping $124 million more than the state was counting on when the General Assembly passed the 2010-2011 budget and Gov. Beverly Perdue signed it into law two months ago.
Consequently, we believe the state has more than enough money to avoid further harmful Medicaid cuts. The governor has the legal authority and management flexibility to protect Medicaid patients without touching a penny of the new $300 million in federal education funding. That is what we have encouraged her to do.
In October 2009, the state cut Medicaid provider payments by 8.5 percent, or more than $300 million. Last year, the state left that hefty rate cut in place, withholding $400 million in medical payments for poor children, women and men. Physicians helped implement an additional savings of $46 million in state payments through programs promoting greater efficiency and better care management.
Physicians are here to serve their fellow human beings in times of need. But when physicians lose money treating Medicaid patients, it's impossible to make up the difference by treating more of them. So poor people's access to medical care suffers.
In the 2009 and 2010 budgets, the state diverted $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid money and used it to subsidize other state programs, including education. We must not take even more Medicaid money away from the poorest patients, whose numbers have increased during the recession. If we do it, we will weaken our Medicaid program at a time when it desperately needs strengthening.
Medicaid is the most cost-effective way to provide basic medical care to more than 1.4 million North Carolinians. Otherwise they'll end up seeking care in emergency departments, which is far more costly - hurting taxpayers, insured workers and employers alike. A third Medicaid rate cut is not justified in light of the stimulus funding Congress just provided to the state.
Robert W. Seligson
CEO and Executive Vice President, N.C. Medical Society
Raleigh
The length limit on letters was waived to provide a fuller response.
