AARP on reduced cuts to Medicaid
Air Date:03/10/2011
By Jackelyn Severin
Lawmakers have reduced cuts in Medicaid funding from ten percent to six percent. Sam Wilson is with AARP in South Dakota. He says this makes cuts more manageable but providers still have less revenue to deal with a growing demand in Medicaid services.
“Cuts are cuts whether they’re done surgically with a scalpel or bluntly with a butter knife,” says Wilson, “You still have cuts involved and time is really going to tell at this point whether or not the cuts that have been proposed are actually going to translate into a loss of services or a reduction of services. That’s really what we have to keep an eye on over the course of this year because it really is anyone’s guess in the end how these cuts will translate into people actually receiving services in their communities.”
Wilson says providers plan on finding how to deliver Medicaid services in a more efficient manner. He says this will result in savings in the long-term but won’t help solve budget problems in the short-term.
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