Category Archives: budget

The budget is everything in health care policy

House Begins Budget Debate – Call Your Representative to Protect Our Health

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

If it’s the week after April school vacation, then this is the week for the Massachusetts House to consider amendments to its version of the budget for the next fiscal year (resources: comprehensive House budget summary from Mass Budget and … Continue reading →

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House Budget Analysis

Posted on April 22, 2011 by

The House budget debate starts up next Monday. We’ll be posting our detailed take on the proposed amendments (there are 758! – list here) soon, but in the meantime the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI) has published an overview of … Continue reading →

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Statement from Health Care For All Regarding the FY 2012 House Budget Proposal

Posted on April 13, 2011 by

[The FY 2012 House budget proposal eliminates all funding for the Commonwealth Care Bridge program, which covers some 20,000 legal immigrants, and continues to limit dental benefits for 700,000 adults in the MassHealth program. HCFA will be working with our … Continue reading →

Posted in budget, HCFA | 1 Comment

Congressman Ryan’s Republican Budget: The Numbers are Disasterous

Posted on April 11, 2011 by

Imagine the current fiscal crisis, which has battered the state budget, extended for years and years to come. Imagine the current budget crisis getting worse and worse over time. That’s what Congressman Paul Ryan’s Republican budget would do to Massachusetts. … Continue reading →

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Ways and Means Hears From Admin Officials on Health Programs

Posted on February 18, 2011 by

The House and Senate Ways and Means Committees held their budget hearing on health programs this morning, and heard testimony from Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, and the state Medicaid Director, … Continue reading →

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Budget Part II – MassHealth Cuts Puzzlement

Posted on January 28, 2011 by

[This is our second report on the Governor's FY 12 budget proposal. Our earlier entry looked at public health.] The Governor released his recommended FY 2012 budget yesterday, and saving money in health care programs, particularly MassHealth, was a major … Continue reading →

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FY 12 Budget I: Public Health: “a serious error in judgment”

Posted on January 27, 2011 by

[Note - We're going to cover yesterday's release by Governor Patrick of the FY2012 budget recommendations in two blog posts. This entry focuses on the cuts to public health] The startling statement from Senator Richard Moore, chair of the Health … Continue reading →

Posted in budget, Public Health | 1 Comment

URGENT FMAP ALERT! SENATE VOTING TODAY THIS WEEK!

Posted on July 31, 2010 by

The Senate will be making another attempt to extend enhanced FMAP (federal Medicaid reimbursement; background) on Monday (UPDATE: see below). The additional funds are critical for Massachusetts. Among the many programs dependent on FMAP is coverage for legal immigrants. Without … Continue reading →

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Too Much For One Blog Post? We Think Not

Posted on June 30, 2010 by

There’s so much health policy news today, that we’re tempted to post 6 different items. They’re all important. But rather than overwhelm, we’ll try some brief-ish summaries of a bunch of things that all exploded today. We apologize for the … Continue reading →

Posted in budget, Health Care Market, MA Health Reform, MassHealth/Medicaid | 7 Comments

Budget Conference: You Can Close The Bridge, But People Still Need To Cross The River

Posted on June 24, 2010 by

The House and Senate conferees reported their FY 2011 budget last night (full text; Globe coverage). Facing no good choices, the conference budget makes deep cuts in health programs, along with many other areas of state government we all rely … Continue reading →

Posted in budget, MA Health Reform, MassHealth/Medicaid, Oral Health, Outreach, Prescription Drug Reform | 1 Comment