newjerseynewsroom.com

Democratics were seeking federal aid to replace $7.5 million governor cut for women's health care

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Gov. Chris Christie Thursday vetoed legislation that he said he believes would worsen the serious financial issues facing the state's Medicaid program and undermine the 2010-11 budget agreement enacted in June.

Democratic sponsors of the proposal strongly disagree.

The legislation (A3273) would have directed the state to submit an application to the federal government so that the state's Medicaid program can offer family planning services to individuals with incomes of up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, rather than only to individuals meeting the income cap of up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level under the current state plan. States exercising the option would receive $9 in federal reimbursement for every $1 they spend for family planning services.

The measure was intended to help offset a portion of the $7.5 million in women's health and family planning funding that Christie vetoed earlier this year, funding that would have helped provide roughly 136,000 women and families with health services.

In making the veto, Christie said state Medicaid program faces a budget shortfall of nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2011-12 due to the loss of nearly $1 billion dollars in non-recurring federal stimulus funding and a continued "maintenance of effort" requirement for that funding mandated by the federal government both as a condition of taking stimulus funds and as part of the federal health care reform law.

"This bill would exacerbate that dramatic budget gap by expanding the Medicaid program and increasing Medicaid costs completely outside the state's annual budget process," Christie said. "It would be financially irresponsible to increase Medicaid costs and expand Medicaid eligibility in the face of such a serious deficit in the Medicaid program and the ongoing budgetary challenges faced by the state generally.

"As New Jersey's Medicaid caseload continues to grow, federal funding is decreasing dramatically," Christie said. "This legislation will add to that gap in both the short term and the long term, including the expansion of the program to an entirely new population of individuals. As the State continues to confront its significant Medicaid shortfall, this piecemeal approach does not make sense from an overall fiscal and healthcare policy perspective."

The four Democratic Assemblywomen who sponsored the bill in the lower house said Christie veto is an attack on low-income women and their families.

"If this is truly an economic issue as the governor has maintained, then we should be taking advantage of every available federal resource," Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) said. "With his veto pen, the Governor has made it clear that this decision isn't based on finances, but ideology."

"It's unconscionable that the governor would leave this money sitting on the table when family planning centers throughout the state are being forced to close or turn patients away," Assemblywoman Celeste Riley (D-Salem) said "At least now he leaves no question about where low and middle income women rank on his scale of importance."

"It is truly sad that the governor would choose to forego this money when our unemployment rate is still hovering near record levels and women are in dire of need of these healthcare services now more than ever," Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden) said. "This legislation was a fiscally prudent endeavor to provide critical health care access for women and families across New Jersey who have seen these services decimated by the Governor's budget."

"Emperor Christie has no clothes," Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Union) added. "On one hand he says he's not opposed to birth control, but yet he shows up at a rally last week and joins a group speaking against women being trusted to make their own decisions about their reproductive health care. He has also said that this issue is purely about money we don't have, but all this bill would have done is leveraged the money already being spent in our Medicaid budget to obtain additional federal dollars to expand access to healthcare services for low-income women."

Christie maintains that despite the economic downturn, he has been able to maintain funding for health care services for New Jersey's women and children and low-income families. The governor's 2010-11 budget provides for an increase of $85 million in charity care and hospital funding, $40 million in funding for funding for cancer screenings for low-income families through the New Jersey Cancer Education and Early Detection program, which among other things funds mammograms and pap smears, colorectal exams and prostate screenings, and over $20 million in funding for health services for low-income families. These health services include programs that serve low-income women and children.