State issues

Medicaid advocates are urging federal regulators to reject Utah's request to pare down coverage for children and charge co-pays in the state-federal program for low-income Americans.

The request would "remove important protections that help ensure low-income children have access to affordable care," says a letter sent Wednesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The letter is signed by 18 groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Utah wants to be able to limit Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment benefit for children. The state proposed to set up a prioritized list when growth in per capita Medicaid spending outpaces the state budget.

Advocates for people with disabilities want federal Medicaid officials to set tougher standards when reviewing states' requests for deep cuts to the state-federal health program for low-income people.

The issue came to a head last month after California asked for permission to slash its Medicaid payments to hospitals and nursing homes by 10 percent, among other cuts. To advocates' surprise, Gov. Jerry Brown's (D-Calif.) massive request for $1.4 billion in cuts was just a few pages long and did not include any evidence documenting that they wouldn't harm the state's most vulnerable residents.

In a recent letter to Medicaid chief Cindy Mann, the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) said the agency should abide by proposed regulations unveiled in May that would require states to provide more information to federal regulators before they can go ahead with cuts.

North Dakota became the first state to be denied a medical loss ratio waiver under the healthcare reform law. Read more...

California Gov. Jerry Brown says he needs to make the cuts to ease his state’s severe budget woes.   

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) told an enthusiastic crowd at the Heritage Foundation on Monday that his Republican administration thinks "taking off the shackles" from insurers is the way to keep healthcare costs low for rural residents.

LePage is among the state leaders who have vowed to repeal Democrats' healthcare reform law and replace it with market-based solutions, such as allowing people to buy cheap insurance that's not as comprehensive as called for in the law. Maine has recently sought to pare down its Medicaid program, forced out its Democratic-appointed insurance commissioner and allowed residents to buy insurance from other New England states.

LePage defended his decisions to deregulate the insurance market with his trademark dry humor and a story about regulations that force nuns to buy maternity care.

"We should have exempted the nuns," he said. "Then if they got into trouble, we could call the Pope."

Democrat Deval Patrick said failure to act in time on the debt ceiling would immediately cost states hundreds of millions of dollars.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts was not a fan of Wednesday's report on the state's healthcare costs, according to the Boston Herald.

USA Today compares the Massachusetts healthcare law to the federal overhaul. (Spoiler alert: They have a lot in common.)

The Wall Street Journal editorial board comes out swinging Thursday morning against Democrats' criticism of a report from McKinsey & Co.

Massachusetts, the model for Democrats' healthcare reform bill, continues to suffer from out-of-control medical prices five years after enacting its law, according to a new report from Attorney General Martha Coakley's office.

The report found that physician and hospital costs in the commonwealth continue to vary widely without regard to differences in the quality of care provided. It calls for improving market function and encouraging care coordination.

"The wide variation in provider payments," the report states, "and the significant pace of market consolidations demonstrate the need for immediate action to restrict, and reverse, further distortion of the competitive market."

The insurance industry, under intense political pressure to curtail premium increases, jumped on the report to argue once again that rising medical costs, not health plan profits, are to blame.

The lawmakers want Attorney General Holder not to targeting medical marijuana patients or providers who are not violating state law.

The rest of the Republican presidential field laid off Mitt Romney on healthcare during Monday's debate, but The New Republic says conservative activists are still prepared to wage a serious battle against the former Massachusetts governor.

A healthcare panel in Virginia heard a Tuesday update on the state's insurance exchange — which is still in the works, even though the state's attorney general is among the foremost critics of the new law and Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) supports his lawsuit to block it.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will probably veto a bill that would undermine his plans for Medicaid, but its passage through a state House panel represents sharp disagreements between Jindal and his Legislature.

And The Washington Post catches up to the fight over Medicaid "maintenance of effort" provisions in the healthcare law, which many Republicans want to see repealed.