Burton says some Dems acting 'shamefully'

Cheryl Owens/News Editor
The Newton Record

NEWTON July 23, 2008 04:47 pm

— On Aug. 4, Gov. Hayley Barbour has called lawmakers back to the House for a special session to reconsider Bill 2013, which is a funding mechanism backed by the Mississippi Hospital Association that will help solve the $90 million funding gap and provide a solution to the program which the Senate voted on and passed.
Sen. Terry C. Burton said for 13 years the public hospitals in Mississippi paid $90 million dollars into the Medicaid program and received $365 million back to be distributed to all public and private hospitals for uncompensated care, upper payment limits and for seeing a disproportionate share of Medicaid patients, public and private hospitals.
“In other words, they disallowed the formula the hospitals were using,” Burton said. “At about the same time, Hurricane Katrina hit and through the leadership of Gov. Barbour, federal money was made to us to replace the $90 million being paid by hospitals until a new system could be put into place.”
Burton said the Governor in the legislative sessions of 2006 and 2007, suggested a new way to assess hospitals, a gross revenue assessment on all hospitals totalling the same $90 million dollars. The legislature disagreed and did not pass a new method of funding this $90 million. The Governor then asked the hospitals to offer an alternative, they did and that is the bill (senate bill 2013), which is authored by Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory, a Democrat, and co-authored by Burton a Newton Republican.
“The bill places a bed assessment on all non-Medicare beds, this amounts to about $90 million dollars and will return $365 milliion to the medicaid program,” Burton said. “This will pay for the same programs the original formula paid for and uncompensated care in all hospitals.”
Burton said this is not a new tax and it is not the same amount paid for 13 years by hospital using a different formula.
“There is no cost to pass along to other patients, the hospitals put up 90 million and get 365 million back, where is there a cost to pass along?” Burton asked. “In fact this program will help slow the rising cost of health care by providing funds for uncompensated care that would be passed along to the insured and private pay patients.”
Burton remarked that some Democrats in the house – not all, but a vocal group – have openly said they want the governor to be forced to cut Medicaid, why? It is all about the November elections with these diehard Democrats and not about the health care of our most vulnerable.
“They want a popular Republican governor to be forced to make unpopular cuts in Medicaid in an attempt to elect Democrats to the U.S. Congress and in the U.S. Senate in Mississippi this election year,” Burton said. “That is shameful and disgusting to those of us who truly want a long-xterm solution to providing healthcare to Mississippians on Medicaid.”
Burton said he has served as chairman of the Medicaid sub-committee on appropriations and worked on the budget for Medicaid for the past nine years.
“I am currently serving as a member of the Public Health Committee, Appropriations Committee, Medicaid Subcommittee Chairman and the Legislative Budget Committee,” Burton said. “All of these are very much tied to the debate.”

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