Senate OKs $9B to stem shortfalls in Medicaid, other programs

WASHINGTON – The Senate overwhelmingly backed a proposal Thursday that would provide $9 billion in temporary funding for Maine and other states to help shore up looming shortfalls in Medicaid and other social service programs.

The bipartisan measure would give a needed boost for states across the country to help deal with declining tax revenues and the fiscal aftershocks following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, according to co-sponsor Sen. Susan Collins.

At the same time, Maine and other states are weathering increasing financial strains from their federally mandated Medicaid programs, which serve children of low-income families, the elderly and disabled.

“The unexpected nature and the severity of the financial crisis states now face has convinced me that we need to help,” Collins said. “We should do so by targeting resources where they are most needed, for health care and social services.”

Of the $9 billion called for in the legislation, $6 billion would be available for Medicaid programs and $3 billion would be made available as “fiscal relief grants” for other social programs.

If passed into law, the Collins measure would provide Maine with $54 million in additional Medicaid funding through 2004, according to the National Governors Association, which endorses the measure.

Other co-sponsors are Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

The measure was approved by voice vote as an amendment to a larger prescription drug bill being debated on the Senate floor.

Medicaid is the fastest-growing program in most states. In Maine, the program now serves some 200,000 residents, a number that has grown by 50,000 since 1998, according to the state Human Services Commissioner Kevin Concannon.

“That’s a very large increase,” he said. “It’s the highest in history.”

Concannon credits Maine’s rise in Medicaid enrollment to the economic downturn, increased efforts to serve low-income children and declining availability of private health insurance in the state.