Rural hospitals seek tax to offset Medicaid cut

Wisconsin State Journal ^ | 1-4-10 | David Wahlberg

[Ellendra]

Wisconsin's rural hospitals hope to offset a state Medicaid cut with a tax that would bring more federal money to the hospitals.

The proposed tax on the state's 59 "critical access" hospitals, all in rural areas, would prevent the hospitals from closing important services, officials say.

The tax would be similar to a tax adopted in February on the state's 72 non-rural hospitals, said Eric Borgerding, a lobbyist with the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

The proposed rural hospital tax, in a bill to be introduced in the Legislature soon, would make up for a 10 percent Medicaid cut that started Friday, Borgerding said.

The cut, of $15 million over two years, is part of $625 million in planned reductions over that period to the recession-strained, $6 billion-a-year Medicaid program, the state-federal health plan for the poor.

[Ellendra]

Cut services, raise taxes, ain't government health care great?

[alloysteel]

Who PAYS the tax, is it going to be funded from local real estate tax, is it going to be part of the (already really quite onerous) state income tax, or is it going to be tacked onto the bill of everyone who uses the facilities (good luck on collecting THAT)?

And the provisions of the still PROPOSED “health care” legislation are not yet fully worked out.

Are all the states, now, going to get the same break as Nebraska got, and have the Feds fully fund the Medicaid program, thus relieving the states of the burden? That shall also mean the Feds will be even stingier than the state-Federal compromises now worked out, all in the name of “economy”. Actually, if anything, the extent of the fraud involved will vastly INCREASE over the present level, as there will be even less oversight by the authorities.

Thus, in the name of “cost containment”, the number of approved procedures and treatments will be vastly curtailed, much as has already happened in Canada and Great Britain.