The outgoing Governor Bob McDonnell on December 10, 2013 revealed his two-year budget proposal called the ‘2014 – 2016 Biennial Budget and Amendments to the 2013 Appropriation Act.’ When Mr. McDonnell released his proposal at the Capital in Richmond he spoke about some key things in regards initiatives that needed to be taken.
The first thing people noticed about the proposed budget was that it was 96 billion dollars. He made some increases in some areas while decreasing funding to areas many people considered unacceptable. This includes cuts to schools; his plan shaved 48 million off kindergarten programs deemed underutilized. One thing that was proposed that most people agreed with was an increase to the states contingency fund. In the budget Governor McDonnell will increase the ‘rainy day fund’ to over one billion dollars. However, higher education was a big concern in the budget as evident because of the almost 200 million boost in the funds allocated for colleges and universities. The one major factor that stuck in people’s mind the most and was the trigger that ignited support for the piece of legislation was the fact that Mr. McDonnell did not propose new taxes. In the plan there is a lot of cutting to programs that are deemed unnecessary and reallocating of funds that Governor McDonnell feels are very important, for example Medicaid. This program is what spark new debate in the house and senate about how Medicaid should not be expanded. This expansion would
Critically analyze the implications of the state’s decision to opt out of Medicaid expansion on the citizens of the state.
The beginning of the article started off very strong with the Republican views on how replacing theAffordable Care Act/ Obamacare seems to be beneficial because Americans believe that the government needs to provide healthcare for all which is “Medicare for all.” Throughout government; the left and right sides do not see eye to eye but in this discussion, they both seem to acknowledge the likelihood of this new system.
One of the most important question that politicians have been arguing about since its establishment after the Depression is Medicaid. Mr. Bush tended to see Medicaid as a big financial bill for the government. But “we've got to keep going forward without killing off the engine and throwing
For the example in this memo, I will be focusing on the funding of educational programs. As you are aware, 38% of the property taxes fund school programs such as athletics, arts, and all day kindergarten. Due to the great recession, property values here in the Knoxtown area were greatly affected and a majority of properties lost nearly 50% of their assessed value. A significant portion of our constituents also lost their homes. Due in some part to these two factors, our projected revenue was not met. The overall revenue for the city was down 42% resulting in a serious budget shortfall. The loss of these property taxes resulted in the cutting of many school programs. The children of our constituents not have fewer athletic and arts programs to choose from as well as eliminating full day kindergarten for the next term. If corrections to the budget are not made, some bus services and reduced lunch programs will also be eliminated.
Continued funding of CTE classes in community college and adding money to the CSUs to increase openings. They do not want the emergency maintenance funding to come from Prop 39, but from
Budgeting is perhaps the most essential process involved in the United States government. While this process seems to exist only in the background, it is, in reality, what allows all other processes of government to function as they do. In order to satisfy the most necessities of modern society, changes must be made to each of the three major categories of the budget: the big five, the middle five, and the little guys.
President Obama’s pledge to pay for the program by taxing the rich, who is anyone that makes more than $1 million a year (which would include President Obama) and will make for “a marketplace that provides choice and competition” (Conniff, 2009). He also proposes that reform is about every American who has ever feared losing their coverage if they become too sick, lose their jobs or even change their jobs. It’s realizing that the biggest force behind our deficit is the growing costs for Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
Expansion of the Medicaid coverage to all new eligible adults and increase fee for service and managed care by primary care physicians will be financed by federal funding. This will cause an outreageous increase in the Federal deficit from the historical 2.9% Gross Domestic Product to more than 20% by 2050.
In a traditionalist state, such as Texas, the financial toll that Medicaid would have on its taxpayers was on the frontlines. The Texas legislature was worried about whether or not its taxpayers would face a tax increase to cover the increased cost of those covered by Medicaid. These taxpayers would inadvertently pay for the hospital bills of those who are uninsured in Texas through an average $1,800 rise in the cost of their premiums (Rapoport, 2012). In support of expanding Medicaid, Texas would receive federal funds in order to ease the cost that accompany the expansion. Since Texas decided not to expand Medicaid, Texas “would be leaving billions and billions of federal dollars on the table” according to Anne Dunkelberg (Rapoport, 2012). Not only does this monetary incentive give Texas an extra push to participate towards expanding Medicaid but it would also help the residents of the state to get insured. Texas legislators understood that this monetary incentive would not fully cover the cost of the newly enrolled Medicaid recipients. In the end, they would have to rework the annual budget and increase taxes in order to cover these extra recipients.
This is forcing the doctors to no longer accept certain insurance companies such as medicaid because they aren’t being reimbursed for the services they’re providing to the consumers that are using medicaid. One doctor, Dr. Martha Boone in Atlanta, Georgia, said that she would have to see 20 patients an hour in order to make any reimbursement from medicaid. She said that medicaid paid none of their bills coming from her office for 18 months and when her office sent registered letters to Medicaid to see what the problem was they said it was a computer error and still didn’t reimburse her office (Heritage, 2010). Because most doctors don’t receive money from Medicaid, most of them don’t accept it. “Of the 93 internists affiliated with New York-Presbyterian Hospital, for example, only 37 accept Medicare, according to the hospital’s Web site.” (Connelly, 2009). This forces the Medicaid consumers to go to the emergency room when they need help since normal doctors rarely take their insurance. Dr. Lloyd Krieger says that the undoing of this healthcare bill is, “an urgent necessity.” because it is, “doing great damage even years before it’s individual mandates and other controls kick in.” (Krieger, 2011).
In the case study for Implementing Budget Cuts in the Basic Health Plan, the core problem is how and who to cut or qualifies for disenrollment from the insurance program. This issue came about when Washington Legislature passed the 2009-11 Biennial Budget. Here government officials started to reassess the regions budget due to a heavy recession. They were looking at trying to save billions of dollars, which almost a quarter million of those billions would come from reducing the funds to the program for Basic Health Plan.
As mentioned by Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press, “Lawmakers bridged a $19 billion shortfall, more than 20 percent of the $87.5 billion general fund spending plan”. This shows that the state was heading towards a financial crisis and more deficit creation. Moreover, Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press also points out that “It includes no tax or fee increases but uses a combination of cuts, funding shifts, delayed corporate tax breaks and assumptions about money the state hopes to receive”. The budget gave rise to other dependent costs such as delayed tax refunds. It was uncertain that the State will receive the required funds from the federal government to ensure that the important programs will function the way it used to be until the funds are received.
There are nine primary components for this reform. These include: affordable health care for Americans, role of public programs, improved quality and efficiency of healthcare, improving public health and chronic disease prevention, healthcare workforce, program transparency and integrity, increased access to medical therapies, community living assistance, and revenue provisions. The problem this piece of legislation hopes to address is the estimated 45 to 75 million of Americans who are uninsured and the additional 50 million who are under-insured (“The United States”, 2010)
“We will pass reform that lowers cost, promotes choice, and provides coverage that every American can count on. And we will do it this year.” The preceding is a powerful statement from the newly elected President Barak Obama. One of the main aspects of both political campaigns was health care reform. The above quote shows passion and encouragement, but the quotes about health care do not end there. Georgian republican gubernatorial candidate and health care policy maker John Oxendine expressed: “Their proposal would virtually devastate the private healthcare sector in this country along with competition and patient choice, by replacing it with bureaucratic planning and government control. The result of this plan and its one trillion
The article is mainly about Scott Walker’s budget with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For example, the article first states that they are slashing $250 million from the University of Wisconsin and ensures that most K-12 school districts will get less funding than they did last year, removing from state law tenure protections for University of Wisconsin professors, and expanding the state’s voucher program. The budget he has set, as he thinks, brings real reform to Wisconsin and allows everyone more opportunity for a brighter future. In conclusion, the article is mainly about the new budget for education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.