Hope Wanes for Medicaid Recipients with Dental Problems

None by KCPW

Health Department Officials Put Funding Back in Lap of State Legislature

(KCPW News) For years, advocates representing low-income and disabled Utahns have pled with state leaders to make dental and vision services a permanent part of the state's Medicaid offering. But federal funding cuts continue to pinch Utah's Medicaid budget and state lawmakers are getting frustrated. This year they chose not to allocate money for health care considered optional in the Medicaid system - that includes dental work and funding for eyeglasses. Funding for those items runs out July first. KCPW's Julie Rose reports on the latest - and perhaps last - installment in the fight for dental and vision before the clock expires:

Until yesterday, low-income advocates held out hope that health department officials could allocate money for Medicaid dental and vision services without legislative approval. But during a public hearing, Medicaid Director Michael Hales made it clear that even though he expects to have about $2 million in surplus from this year's budget, he doesn't have the authority to sidestep lawmakers and carry that money over to the new fiscal year.

Funding for dental and vision services will run out on July 1st unless lawmakers give their permission to access those left-over funds. Next year Hales expects a $6 million shortfall in Medicaid, so it's unlikely he'll find any extra cash to spend on dental. House Republican Chief of Staff Chris Bleak says the whole debate misses the larger budget picture.

"Budget decisions are best made when one is looking at the entire puzzle and not when one says 'Let's look at this one issue becuase it needs to happen right now,'" says Bleak.

That's why lawmakers refused to even debate the funding request during the recent special session, adds Bleak. Instead, the legislature has formed a task force to study Medicaid, offering little solace to the 65,000 low-income and disabled Utahns who will lose their dental coverage in July.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW