BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana state senators blocked plans by Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration to shutter a Medicaid program that provides mental health services to more than 47,000 children, saying Wednesday that the budget-cutting measure went too far.
The Edwards administration planned to close the program April 1, to save Louisiana more than $2 million this year. The plan came in response to cuts levied by lawmakers on the Department of Health in last month’s special session to close a budget deficit.
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, the governor’s chief budget architect, said the health department didn’t want to shutter a program that helps children with behavioral problems. But he said lawmakers gave the agency limited options for making reductions in Medicaid, including a list of areas shielded from the slashing.
“Neither the department nor the administration likes making this recommendation to you for elimination,” Dardenne said. “We’re at a point where cuts have consequences.”
Senate Health and Welfare Committee members said they couldn’t support balancing the budget by eliminating services that help children with behavioral health and emotional problems to remain in their homes and function in school. Several senators blamed House Republican lawmakers for forcing deeper cuts by refusing to use more “rainy day” fund money to fill gaps.
“I understand the dilemma that the administration has,” said Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria. But he added: “I can’t do this to kids.”
Sen. Norby Chabert, R-Houma, said: “I can’t see how we benefit from cuts to programs like this.”
The Senate committee unanimously blocked the program’s closure, taking the rare step of rejecting an emergency regulation issued by the health department to eliminate the mental health treatment services.
“Seeing no objection, this rule is rejected and becomes null and void,” Committee Chairman Fred Mills, R-Parks, announced to cheers from opponents who packed the hearing room.
The program saved by senators provides “psychosocial rehabilitation services” for those under age 21, help with daily living skills and coping strategies for youth with anger management problems, anxiety issues and depression.
Jeff Reynolds, chief financial officer for the health department, said the program was targeted because its costs have continued to rise annually. Plus, he said the agency has to balance its budget by the June 30 end of the fiscal year.
But senators said the department should tighten up the standards and criteria for health providers in the program and the decision-making about which children receive the services to cut spending, not eliminate the services entirely. They worried that shuttering the program would only shift costs to more expensive mental health programs.
Mills asked the department to “make the program as fiscally sound as we can while still providing the services.”
The health department took a $41 million cut to its $2.8 billion in state financing during the February special session. Reynolds said even with the children’s health program elimination, the department had another $8.1 million in cuts to make.
That grew to $10.3 million with Wednesday’s committee action.
Asked where he’d make the reductions, Reynolds replied: “I just don’t know. I’m sort of banging my head against the wall, to be honest with you. The alternatives, all of them are very ugly.”
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