La. could get large Medicaid boost

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jan 30, 2009 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:15 a.m.

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Louisiana stands to get nearly $1 billion in extra federal health-care dollars from the economic package being debated by the U.S. Congress, the state’s health chief said Thursday.

If approved, the federal assistance could come at a time when the state’s health agency is facing the loss of up to $380 million in state funding.

“It would certainly seem to help mitigate (cuts), but we need to understand the full impact of the legislation,” said state Department of Health and Hospital Secretary Alan Levine, who spent Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, D.C., visiting with the state’s congressional delegation.

“We aren’t counting any dollars until the bill is the law of the land,” Levine said.

Based on DHH analysis, Levine said the U.S. Senate version of the economic legislation is better than the U.S. House’s bill, at least for Louisiana’s $7 billion-plus Medicaid program. Medicaid provides health insurance for the poor — mainly children, the elderly and disabled.

The U.S. Senate version would provide $993.8 million in extra federal funds for Louisiana’s Medicaid program over 27 months, Levine said.

The U.S. House version would provide $978.6 million over the same period based on the state’s financial analysis, he said.

The biggest chunk of the funding would come in the state fiscal year that begins July 1. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget office ordered Levine  to provide scenarios on how he would handle the loss of between $210 million and $380 million in federal funds.

State Medicaid director Jerry Phillips said some $480 million of the extra federal funds could become available under the pending congressional bill for use in the upcoming budget year.

“It would put us a little ahead, give us a little breathing room,” Phillips said.

But he, like Levine, noted that the extra federal aid being voted on goes away Jan. 1, 2011, and the state will end up having to come up with substantially more funding to pay for Medicaid.

Under the Senate version, the federal government would pay 79.45 percent of Medicaid program costs, with the state paying the remainder. Today, the federal government pays 72 percent of program costs and the rate was scheduled to decline to 68 percent Oct. 1.

At the end of the federal bailout, the federal rate could decline under the Senate version from 79.45 percent to 68 percent.