Ariz. Senate panel votes to kill Medicaid program

[JohnDoe2]

Ariz. Senate panel votes to kill Medicaid program

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press Arizona Daily Star
February 23, 2011 10:24 am

PHOENIX — A divided Arizona Senate committee voted early Wednesday to eliminate the cash-short state’s Medicaid program and replace it with a much smaller system that would cover only a fraction of low-income people now served.

The Appropriations Committee voted 8-5 to drop the program, known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

The program serves approximately 1.3 million people, or roughly one of every five Arizonans. A replacement envisioned in the bill would serve up to 100,000 people, including the seriously mentally ill and people needing long-term care.

The bill goes to the state full Senate after a legal review and discussions by party caucuses, but its prospects for passage were unclear. The vote happened in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after a marathon session dominated by immigration bills.

Gov. Jan Brewer, who has proposed that 250,000 people be dropped from program eligibility because of the state’s budget troubles, said Tuesday she wanted to protect care for the 1 million or so who would be left in the program.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, said AHCCCS is financially unsustainable because it serves too many people and strings put on the program by the federal government make it too costly.

Despite that, “there isn’t anybody that’s seriously talking about reform,â€

[marquis]

i personally talked to the state treasure ... the reason our program is in the red is because we have too many uninsured illegal immgrants who've drained it ..

[Pisces_2010]

i personally talked to the state treasure ... the reason our program is in the red is because we have too many uninsured illegal immgrants who've drained it ..

Agree 100%.

Not only Arizona, all States Medicate programs are affected, due to undocumented aliens, and supporting their children instead of using the funds to assist disable citizens.

[thedramaofmylife]

Exactly, and AZ can't legally just drop the anchor babies so they end up having to punish ALL low income Arizonians.

[ReformUSA2012]

Some may call me harsh but I personally support such thing fully from al angles.

First we shouldn't have to pay a dime for any illegal alien in a hospital imo w/o cash or private insurance. Even if they are bleeding to death, they should be recieving care in their home country. Think Americans get free healthcare outside the US if we get injured? This includes births of babies, for thousands of years if not longer humans have been giving birth without hospitals and doctors and in many countries continue to do so and have healthy babies.

Second I do believe we have a social obligation to those with real disabilities from birth or childhood, sorry but being a lazy liberal is not really a disability but just a lack of education and pure stupidity. I believe in personal responsibility and if your an adult you should be responsible for your own affairs. This means working and trying to better yourself, this means carrying health insurance if your not rich with cash on hand. Give a hand up when its needed but never handouts. If someone is injured on the job thats between the employer and the employee and we only need to protect the legal interests and not be that 3rd crutch.

Today we have to many living off the welfare state, both illegal aliens and legal citizens. Its a crutch and needs to be cut off fully. If one refuses to take care of themselves its noone else's responsibility to do so plain and simple.