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About
the Campaign
Updated
February 14, 2005
Like
many other states, Ohio is facing a budget crisis. As
the budget process begins, state lawmakers are looking
at a projected budget deficit of nearly $5 billion.
This means that new revenue will be required just to
maintain current programs during the next two years,
let alone to fund new ones. Most likely, it means that
massive spending cuts will be needed in the absence
of new dollars.
Medicaid is being targeted for
major cuts because it accounts for about 20 percent
of spending supported by Ohio tax dollars. Medicaid
also is one of the fastest growing parts of the state
budget here in Ohio and across the nation. In FY 2003,
spending for the Ohio Medicaid program was about $8.8
billion; it is expected to reach $10.5 billion in FY
2005.
As the voice of Ohio's youngest
patients, their families and health care providers,
the Ohio Children's Hospital Association has launched
a statewide campaign to protect health care for our
kids. We're asking the Governor and state legislators
to keep Medicaid strong for Ohio's kids through four
actions:
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1.
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Maintain
Medicaid eligibility for Ohio's children. |
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2.
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Eliminate the cut in Medicaid funding to children's hospitals. For any changes in the inpatient system, including but not limited to the recalibration issue, require budget neutrality for each children's hospital. |
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3.
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Remove the freeze on children's hospitals' inpatient reimbursement rates. Ensure that children's hospitals' reimbursement rates will be updated for inflation on an annual basis over the course of the biennium. |
4. |
Promote Successful Medicaid Managed Care. Don't force hospitals to do business with an HMO if the hospital has determined that it poses unacceptable risks to high-quality health care and the hospital's financial solvency. |
Ohio's
six regional children's hospitals believe that changes
in state Medicaid policy should be based on a full understanding
of their likely impact on Ohio's children. Cuts affecting
children could cause significant harm without generating
significant savings.
Our state's leaders need to
understand, for example, that investing in healthy children
makes sense first and foremost because it reduces future
health care costs. Good primary care coverage helps
to ensure that kids see doctors early, before illnesses
grow worse and become more expensive to treat.
They also need to know that
freezing children's hospitals' inpatient reimbursement
rates would save only one-tenth of one percent of the
Medicaid budget, yet lead to significant new barriers
to health care for Ohio's kids.
This is what our campaign is
all about. We are talking directly with Ohio lawmakers.
We are asking parents, families, health care professionals,
business and community leaders – all Ohioans who
care about protecting and enhancing the health and well-being
of all children – to help us tell the Governor
and state legislators that Medicaid is essential to
meeting children's health care needs, and that it is
an affordable investment in Ohio's future.
The time to act is now. And
you can help us protect health care for our kids. At
children's hospitals, it's what matters most!
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