Obama administration approves California Medi-Cal cuts

[Newsjock]

Source: Sacramento Bee

Gov. Jerry Brown scored a budget win Thursday as the Obama administration approved a major share of Medi-Cal cuts that health care providers and patient advocates said would cut off medical access to the state's most vulnerable residents.

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will allow the state to cut reimbursement rates by 10 percent this fiscal year for a variety of Medi-Cal providers, including physicians, pharmacists and optometrists. The state Department of Health Care Services says it will not cut rates paid to pediatricians, home health providers or nursing homes.

California Medical Association CEO Dustin Corcoran said Thursday his group will file suit asking the court to immediately block this latest round of Medi-Cal cuts.

... Doctors, pharmacists and patient advocates lobbied CMS this summer to block the Medi-Cal cuts, suggesting that many providers would abandon the system.

Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/10/obam...

[Angry Dragon]

1. The Country is dead, long live the Kings

[Bennyboy]

2. Whew, IHSS worker here.

No cuts. Can't handle another one.

[alp227]

3. yet corporate/military-industrial complex welfare hasn't been cut a penny!

and many seniors in need of this program will likely turn AGAINST Obama in 2012 because their services got cut!

[SoapBox]

4. Very well said...

It's really disgusting, isn't it?!

[alp227]

11. furthermore, will those seniors just sit out the election

if they know that both major parties don't care about them, or will some of the more misguided ones vote for the Wall Street ticket of Romney/Cain in 2012?

[No Elephants]

13. I am no expert, but I know that, in Boston, seniors VOTE.

I've seen very old and even feeble seniors in wheelchairs and on walkers. Where I vote, there are so many, they sometimes have to wait on line anyway. The poll workers feel they can't give them a pass.

[L0oniX]

5. Death pannel?

[tsuki]

6. I thought Jerry Brown was supposed to be the great hope. nt

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[totodeinhere]

8. I often disagree with Obama but he is not a fraud and he is a far cry from Bush. n/t

[bertman]

9. You're right in the respect that he speaks well and doesn't mangle syntax.

The rest, in many ways, is up for debate.

[ProSense]

10. More information

here.

[The Northerner]

12. K&R n/t