Letter to editor from State Rep. Cecil Brown
June 24, 2008
Dear Editor,
In the dispute over Medicaid funding, Governor Barbour keeps saying that his proposed hospital tax is “fair.” But what makes it fair? The money he is taking from hospitals is the state’s required match to receive federal Medicaid funds. Hospitals receive Medicaid payments because they provide medical treatment to Medicaid patients, just as they receive payments from Blue Cross because they provide services to Blue Cross patients. And hospitals don’t pay their patients’ Blue Cross premiums.
Medicaid payments to hospitals are not “free money.” The services hospitals provide cost them money. The Medicaid payments reimburse them for a portion of that cost. The hospital tax simply increases their costs which, because Medicaid payments are capped, will ultimately be passed on to private patients and their insurance companies.
It is no more “fair” to tax hospitals to meet the state’s obligation to match Medicaid funds than it would be to tax doctors, pharmacists, wheel chair companies and others who also provide medical services to Medicaid patients. They also receive Medicaid payments at the same 3 to 1 match as hospitals.
If it is fair to tax hospitals to meet the state’s match requirement, perhaps we should look at other federal programs that require matching dollars. For example, for every $1 we spend on highway construction, the federal government gives us $4. Perhaps we should tax highway contractors to provide the state match. After all, just as hospitals get the federal money for providing medical services, the contractors get the federal money for building highways. Obviously we don’t want to do that.
The differences between the Governor and the House on this issue are very real. To fund the shortfall, the House has proposed an increase in the tobacco tax to a level imposed by surrounding states. We have also offered a compromise with a combination of increased tobacco taxes and a substantially lower tax on hospitals. What is really not fair is the Governor’s plan to cause a $90 million increase in medical insurance premiums for the working people of this state and their employers.
Cecil Brown
House District 66
Jackson, MS
601-362-8383