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Bush Prescription Plan: No Quick
Help For States
from Gongwer News Service, March
4, 2003
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President George W. Bush's plan to provide a prescription drug
benefit under Medicare, seen as essential by Governor Jennifer
Granholm to ease the state's budget shortfall, would not provide
any relief until 2006 at the earliest.
Governors from both parties, including Ms. Granholm, have urged
Mr. Bush and Congress to enact a Medicare prescription drug
benefit because low-income seniors now rely on the joint
state-federal Medicaid program for drug coverage, sapping state
budgets. Ms. Granholm has said Michigan spends about $400
million on prescription drug coverage for these so-called "dual
eligibles."
Mr. Bush, who unveiled his plan Tuesday, would grant varying
levels of prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries,
depending on their willingness to move into a managed care
Medicare structure. The president dumped an initial plan that
would have required those on Medicare to move into managed care
to receive any prescription coverage.
Low-income seniors who want to remain in Medicare's traditional
fee-for-service system would receive a $600 subsidy each year
toward prescription drug costs. Seniors remaining in the
existing set-up also would get assistance with high overall drug
bills although the Bush administration was not providing
specifics of what constitutes a high bill.
Seniors who agree to move into managed care would get larger
drug coverage although it was not immediately clear how sizeable
it would be.
If Congress passes the plan this year, drug benefits would first
become available January 1, 2006.
That would almost certainly be disappointing news to
cash-strapped states around the country. Ms. Granholm has said
she is not counting on a federal prescription drug plan to help
with the 2003-04 budget. A 2006 start date would mean no relief
for Medicaid for the next two fiscal years.
Granholm press secretary Liz Boyd said the administration has
not seen the proposal and could not offer an opinion of it. Ms.
Boyd said the administration awaits the proposal's details and
reiterated Ms. Granholm's desire to see the federal government
address the dual eligible issue.
BUDGET COUNTDOWN: GRANHOLM WILL START PRESENTATION
from Gongwer News Service, March 3, 2003
As anticipation grows towards Thursday's presentation of
Governor Jennifer Granholm's 2003-04 budget, officials confirmed
Monday that Ms. Granholm will begin the presentation before the
legislative Appropriations committees and that as a cost savings
measure, hundreds fewer copies of the budget will be printed.
Ms. Granholm will also present a 2003-04 school aid budget on
Thursday, even though a budget for K-12 schools for the next
fiscal year has been enacted. There had been speculation that
Ms. Granholm would not introduce legislation on school aid and
simply leave the issue to a pro-ration reduction when the fiscal
year began. However, sources have indicated that there are
enough technical changes, at a minimum, on a number of funding
initiatives planned that a new bill is warranted.
Officials and legislators in some cases are starting to get
frantic trying to get some sense of what might be in the budget
and have resorted to almost every technique short of the
psychoanalytic device of fantasy analysis to get a heads-up on
the cuts that might be required.
Ms. Granholm is expected to issue at least $1 billion in
permanent and one-time cuts in the budget along with some
revenue increases by closing tax loopholes and raising some
fees. The budget is anticipated to face total revenue shortfalls
of as much as $1.7 billion in the 2003-04 fiscal year.
Unlike previous budgets in preceding years when carefully placed
leaks were issued to a wide variety of individuals and
organizations, administration officials are sitting on this
budget as tightly as possible. One individual close to the
administration said the feeling in the Romney Building where Ms.
Granholm's office is located is that the administration would
rather take its hits all at one time instead of facing a growing
barrage of criticism as leaks drip.
One of the few revelations so far to come out on the budget is
that no cuts in Medicaid reimbursement to providers such as
hospitals and doctors are planned although other cuts in other
areas of Medicaid are expected.
The earliest scheduled time for some lawmakers to get an
official glimpse of the proposed budget is Wednesday, although
there is a chance some get a briefing on Tuesday.
For the last several weeks it had been talked about that Ms.
Granholm might conduct the briefing on Thursday as a sign of how
serious the budget situation is. Officials said Monday she would
open the briefing before turning it over to Budget Director Mary
Lannoye.
Also as a budget savings measure the state will print about 500
fewer copies of the executive budget. Officials found that
additional copies of former Governor John Engler's 2002-03
budget existed, and determined that to save money fewer copies
will be printed.
However, officials plan to have all the materials about the
budget-including the document itself-available on the state's
Web site starting at 12:05 p.m. on Thursday. |
