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LegisLetter |
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Monday, January 26, 2009 |
UHA, |
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In this Issue
Overall Budget Picture Is Grim
Medicaid and Other Health Funding In Serious Trouble
Three Major Health Reform Bills to Be Debated
UHA’s Legislative Reception and Hospital Day at the Legislature
UHA Is Here to Help Keep You Informed Legislative Links http://www.le.state.ut.us/ http://uha-utah.org/advocacy.html UHA Corporate Sponsors www.ut.regence.com Other Useful Links Contact Us |
The
2009 Utah Legislative begins today with unprecedented budget
challenges. After years of record surplus, the state is facing record
budget deficits. Balancing the budgets for FY2009 (the current year)
and FY2010 (next fiscal year) will take up most of the debate in this year’s
legislature. Remember that the Legislature must balance the budget each
year under our state constitution. Look for the session to be dominated
with the budget debate. In the health arena, the budget will also dominate
as well as the continued push for state health reform. Overall Budget Picture
Is Grim Last
year, the Legislature began their session with an estimated surplus of $838
million with $386 million in on-going funds and $452 million in one time
funds. This year, they begin the session with an estimated budget
shortfall of $350 million for the current 2009 fiscal year which ends June
30, 2009 as well as an FY2010 budget shortfall of $650 million. The
legislative appropriations subcommittees have been meeting the past two weeks
with a charge to reduce FY2009 funding by another 7.5% and FY2010 funding by
15%. Look for serious cuts to many programs as well as debate over
raising the gas and cigarette taxes and maybe repealing the sales tax cut on
food passed a few years ago. There is likely to be federal stimulus
money that will help balance the budget as well as a debate on how much to
bond for buildings and roads. The Legislature has also wisely reserved
over $515 million in one-time rainy day accounts and some of that will be
used to balance the budget but the Legislature will be loathe to spend all of
this money right now. Bottom line is that almost every government
program will have their budgets reduced. In effect, the budget will
likely go back to a level that is consistent with historical growth, and not
the record growth in state government funding that occurred over the past few
years due to record surplus funds. Medicaid and
Other Health Funding In Serious Trouble As
with all other state budgets, the Medicaid and overall health budgets are
faced with serious cuts. For FY2009, the Health and Human Service
Subcommittee has been told to cut an additional $50 million as well as $100
million in FY2010. This is just the state portion and adding the federal
funding portion could mean health cuts in the hundreds of millions of
dollars. There are all kinds of proposals to reach these targets.
For hospitals, there is a proposal to cut Medicaid payments by 11% and also
to impose a hospital provider tax. UHA has strongly opposed this
proposal and will continue to do so. There are many other proposals
that could indirectly impact hospital funding by eliminating services and
eligibility categories. The Health and Human Services Subcommittee has
been meeting and will continue to meet to refine these budget proposals over
the next week or so. This will be a budget “hot spot” and there will be
many hours of negotiations between the legislative and executive branches on
these proposals. Three Major
Health Reform Bills to Be Debated Look
for the debate over health care reform to continue during this legislative
session. The Legislature Task Force on Health Reform has been
discussing health reform legislation for months and three new bills will be
debated. A comprehensive health insurance reform bill will draw the
most discussion and debate. Another bill will provide for
administrative simplification in the billing and insurance process.
Finally, a bill encouraging businesses to provide health insurance to their
employees if they want to earn state contracts will be discussed. UHA will
continue to be a major player in the health reform debate. UHA is supportive
of Representative Clark’s efforts and will join with others to help to make
sure that any reform is market based, fiscally viable and helps to improve
cost, quality and access. The
budget and health reform debates will dominate the health committees this
session. There will also be a number of other health care bills of interest
to hospitals. Hospital lien legislation may be back
again as well as reauthorization of the medical arbitration statute.
Legislation dealing with abortion, niche providers, and licensing issues will
also likely be introduced. Plan On
Attending UHA’s Legislative Reception and Hospital Day at the Legislature It
is not too late to RSVP to come to UHA’s Annual
Legislative Reception to be held from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. this Thursday, January
29, 2008 in the Sun Valley Room at Little America Hotel in UHA Is Here
to Help You Keep Informed Please
visit the UHA website at www.utah-utah.org for
more legislative information. For additional legislative information
you can go to the legislative website at www.le.state.ut.us where
you can read and track proposed legislation, see committee agendas and find
lots of other pertinent information. If you have specific questions or
concerns, please e-mail Dave Gessel at dave@uha-utah.org or call him at
231-3404. |