Iowa Backroads

Iowa's Medicaid program has once again been a leading story in the news last week. I have been one of the legislators communicating with the Governor's office and the Department of Human Services (DHS) since last fall as they negotiated with the federal government a mutually beneficial solution to the problem facing the state. The federal governmen... t has threatened a $65 million cut to Iowa in federal intergovernmental transfer dollars currently being utilized to help fund the Medicaid program. Iowa receives approximately $2 from the federal government for every $1 of state funds. With this arrangement, Iowans and Iowa health care providers receive $2.17 billion in federal and state health care dollars. In January, I reported that the Bush administration plans to cut the federal deficit and pay for the war by cutting back on the federal share to Medicaid. Iowa, and most other states, have transferred federal health care dollars between accounts in order to leverage additional federal Medicaid dollars. These are called Intergovernmental Transfers (IGT). Most of the IGT are unknown to Iowans other than those who administer hospitals or nursing homes. The $65 million of health related IGT have been leveraged into nearly $100 million worth of medical services for Iowans. The federal government intends to end four IGT to Iowa on June 30, 2005. The facilities impacted by the federal governments threatened cut are: University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, paid through a $27 million annual state general fund appropriation to the indigent patient care program, also known to many of us as "State Papers"; Iowa's four Mental Health Institutes ($30 million); and Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines (a public hospital serving a low-income population in Polk County), supported through Polk County property taxes ($34 million). Last week, Governor Vilsack received a letter from the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, (former Governor of Utah). Secretary Leavitt approved, in principal, Iowa's ...Read More