Last week senate Republicans blocked a jobs bill which also contained enhanced financing to the states for Medicaid. Because the states are barred from changing eligibility standards on Medicaid, cuts will have to come from elsewhere in the budget if Congress doesn't act soon. Our own Ed Rendell told the New York Times,
Technorati Tags: Penn State, Medicaid cuts, Rendell, Spanier, Pennsylvania,
“It’s a bloodletting.”So Graham, what are your contingency plans should these cuts come about?
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In Pennsylvania, which is confronting a $1.6 billion revenue shortfall, the elimination of the additional Medicaid financing would mean having to come up with $850 million, Mr. Rendell said.
Because the state has already made more than $2.5 billion in cuts since the fall of 2008, when the economy went into a freefall, Mr. Rendell said layoffs were inevitable, not just at the state level but the local level.
“It’s going to be huge teacher layoffs, money to our universities, money to the counties and cities, municipal workers, firemen,” he said. “It would be enormously destructive.”
Mr. Rendell fretted that the resulting fallout from the loss of federal money would bring a halt to three straight months of job gains for the state.
“I know everyone cares about the deficit, and so do I,” he said. “But they care about the deficit until the cuts hit home.”
Technorati Tags: Penn State, Medicaid cuts, Rendell, Spanier, Pennsylvania,
