Comments by Debra Miller

Coalition to Preserve Medicaid

March 7, 2001

Good morning. My name is Debra Miller and I am the Executive Director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. Assembled here this morning under the banner of the Coalition to Preserve Medicaid are a number of health consumer and advocacy groups and health provider organizations.

We want the public to understand just how important the Medicaid health insurance program is to all residents of our state and just how devastating the $380 million dollar deficit in the program will be to Kentucky. We want to appeal to the Governor to fix the deficit without making major cuts in Medicaid services or reducing the number of vulnerable individuals eligible to receive services.

We know that fixing the Medicaid deficit won’t be easy. But it may be, we believe, the biggest public policy question facing Kentucky. We know that balancing the critical nature of Medicaid services with other essential government functions is a difficult task. We commend the Governor for announcing the formation of a high level group of advisors to assist him. We commend him for his personal attention to the issue. However, we remain concerned that any solution to the Medicaid deficit that doesn’t look outside the Medicaid program will do real harm.

Who must we protect from harm? We must protect the 600,000 children, adults, and seniors who depend upon Medicaid for their health care. In a few minutes we will hear from three people who will tell you how Medicaid increases their independence and strengthens their families. While some may bemoan the growing number of individuals who qualify for Medicaid services, our Coalition sees this as an opportunity to ensure that more citizens of the Commonwealth receive needed services. As health care costs escalate, more and more hard working families need the help of Medicaid. If it ever was, Medicaid is no longer a welfare program. Thousands of middle class families turn to Medicaid for health care for their children, for behavioral health care for adolescents, and in-home and nursing home care for aging parents.

We must also protect – and multiply – the mighty economic benefits of the Medicaid program that the entire state reaps. As a state-federal match program, Kentucky receives 2.2 billion dollars from Washington in return for the roughly one billion dollars we put up. The first economic multiplier is the match rate – for each $3 dollars Kentucky puts up, the federal government adds $7 dollars. The second economic multiplier is how the funds ripple through the economy. A recent LRC study estimated that the Medicaid program creates 95,000 jobs in our state, and that the average annual salary for those jobs is $32,000. These aren’t just jobs in the health arena, they are jobs in real estate, office supply, and food service as the Medicaid dollar ripples through the economy.

We have here today people who would like to share how Medicaid has impacted their lives.