Lawmakers: More money for human services needed

Money committee members told Human Services officials Thursday money must be added back into budgets providing services to pregnant women and children of low income families.

The proposed budget would eliminate funding which provides pregnancy services to about 130 women at any one time. It will save just about $2.4 million in General Fund money over the biennium.

"This is not something we relish doing, obviously," said health Care Financing and Policy Administrator Chuck Duarte. "We had a budget target and we had to look at some of the priorities."

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said the cut "moves us back 10 years." She said the cut doesn't make sense because it will cost much more than that if just a few of those women have serious medical problems during their pregnancy because they weren't seeing a doctor.

Buckley said the program was a partnership with the hospitals and counties.

"We spend years creating it then break our promises to them," she said.

"We don't end up saving money," said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno. "Those babies are going to come whether mom has coverage or not."

She and Buckley said that program has to go back on the priority list of budget cuts to restore.

"It's just morally reprehensible to cut off money to pregnant women," Buckley said. "I just won't do it."

Lawmakers also objected to the governor's decision to sweep the Indigent Accident Fund into the General Fund. The estimated $56 million in that fund would be used to leverage more Medicaid money. But county officials and hospital operators say the move could force some rural hospitals to close and would result in the lawsuits which were common before the fund was created 20 years ago.

Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden said there is also a legal question whether the state can claim that money. If it is ruled county money, he said taking it would prohibit the state from drawing down Stimulus money for health and human services programs.

County representatives say it is county money because it is generated by a small piece of the county's property tax revenues carved out to pay catastrophic medical costs of those who can't pay after an accident.

Leslie and Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, also argued the proposed 5 percent reduction in Medicaid reimbursement rates is onerous on hospitals.

And lawmakers objected to the governor's proposed cap on Nevada Checkup, the program which funds health insurance coverage for children of the working poor. The proposal would cap the program at 25,000, just about the number now served. Only two years ago, there were 31,000 in the program. Duarte said it would cost an estimated $3.2 million to remove that cap. If removed, he said the number of children served could go as high as 32,500 by 2011.

Buckley said the combination of all those reductions creates "a tsunami effect" on hospitals, particularly in rural areas.

"The cumulative impact is too much on the hospitals and the county reimbursement system," she said.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.