Taxpayers could get a break on Medicaid costs, thanks to President Barack Obama’s recent budget proposal.
That’s the prediction from local government officials.
The president’s proposal on Medicaid, said Jim Rowley, the chief fiscal officer for Onondaga County is “really a vehicle to offset taxes and get money to the county.”
In his proposed budget sent to Congress on Feb. 1, 2010, Obama included a provision for an additional $9.6 million for Onondaga County’s Medicaid program. Congress must still approve the president’s budget proposals.
Medicaid is the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor. It covers the costs of things like hospitalization, medicines, doctor’s visits and long-term care for the poor, elderly and disabled.
Medicaid is financed through federal, state and local taxes. Those local taxes include sales and property taxes. About one third of Onondaga’s taxes go towards Medicaid, according to local officials. In Onondaga County, Medicaid covers about 76,300 people. That’s 17 percent, or one out of every sixth person in the county, according to the county. About 6,000 of these are elderly in long-term care, said county officials.
Since 2000, the county’s Medicaid costs have grown from $57 million to $97 million in 2009. Most of the growth comes from New York raising the acceptable income for beneficiaries so that more people qualify for Medicaid’s coverage and from the rising costs of health care, said county officials. And the recession has also meant more applicants for Medicaid, as laid-off workers lose the insurance from their former employers, said county officials.
If Congress approves Obama’s increase in Medicaid, the additional federal aid would help reduce the amount the local government has to pay toward the program, Rawley, the chief fiscal officer, said.
The county’s budget for 2010 is already balanced, leaving the new money available to ease the county’s predicted 2011 deficit, said Rowley. The deficit is projected to be $55 million. The proposed increase from Obama could lower that by about $10 million, said Rowley.
The added money could reduce taxes or prevent them from increasing in 2011 by lowering the county’s budget deficit, said Patrice Gile, a budget analyst for Onondaga County. “If you lower deficits, then you don’t have to raise as much money,” Gile said
Onondaga county spends about $97 million a year on Medicaid, according to county officials. That makes Onondaga County one of the highest-spending counties in upstate
New York, said Rowley, the chief fiscal officer. This also makes it one of the counties in upstate New York to receive the most money, said Rowley. Onondaga spends more than other counties in upstate New York because the general population is bigger and so it has more people on Medicaid, said Rowley.
Nationally, New York is also one of the highest spending states on Medicaid. It covers the most people for more care of all the states, said county officials. For example, New York has 5.1 million Medicaid recipients and spends $40.6 million per year on Medicaid, compared to 10.5 million people at $28.9 million in California and about 4.1 million people and $13.8 million in Texas, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-partisan organization researching health care policy.
New York spends so much more, Rowley said, because the state’s program covers people with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level. The federal poverty level rate is an income of $22,050 for a family of four. In New York a family of four with an income of up to $44,100 can qualify for Medicaid’s health insurance coverage.
Other states tend to cover those at the federal poverty line or below, said Rowley.
Even if the county gets the additional money from Obama’s proposed budget, said Rowley, it cannot cover more people. This is because the program is highly regulated by the state and so more benefits and beneficiaries can’t be added without state approval.
The same would hold true in the reverse, he said. If the federal aid were to be cut, the participants would not lose the coverage they receive now. Instead the public would have to make up the difference by paying more taxes.
“Medicaid in general has cost the county a lot of money,” Rowley said. “When the president proposes this — any relief is welcome news.”
(Katrina Koerting is a junior with dual majors in newspaper and political science.)
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