HEIDI TOTH - Daily Herald | Posted: Monday, February 20, 2006 11:00 pm
A low-income advocacy group awarded cowardice certificates to four legislators Monday for failing to fund adult dental and vision services for Medicaid.
But, said one legislator, the issue is more complex than the more than $1 billion surplus and whether he supports the programs, and the protest in the lobby of the West Office Building at the State Capitol Complex wasn't addressing that.
Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo and vice chairman of the Executive Appropriations Committee, was a target for Bill Tibbitts, director of the Anti-Hunger Action Committee, and about 20 Medicaid recipients who were protesting the decision to cut funding for the two programs. Tibbitts said Bramble said he was opposed to the funding, got his certificate and threw it away. Bramble described the scene somewhat differently.
"I walked out of the Senate chambers and I was accosted," he said; the discussion was minimal and overly simplistic, and to him, not effective. "Even with budget surpluses, there's still not enough to do everything everyone wants."
The two programs were cut, although both were in the governor's budget and in a list of priorities for the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, so Tibbitts said he was surprised when the services, which he had been told were high priority, were axed. Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, co-chairman of the HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, said the items were on the priority list, with adult dental at No. 9 and vision at No. 11 of 20 items. Inflation, increasing case loads and decreased federal funding all were part of the decision to cut the optional programs.
"We are just headed for a disaster in our ability to fund the basic programs," he said.
For the people who rely on Medicaid, these are basic, Tibbitts said. Their goal Monday was to speak with Bramble, Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City, and Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, the leadership of the Executive Appropriations Committee. If they pledged to fight to get those benefits back, they would get a leadership certificate. Bramble and Bigelow were handed their certificates of cowardice; the other two had certificates sent to them.
"We'd still like to talk to the two we haven't talked to, because we just think it's important that we talk face-to-face to the people we haven't heard," he said.
The protest's centerpiece was a 36-inch by 48-inch certificate of cruelty, whose recipient hasn't been determined yet. Tibbitts said they would give it to someone who was actively working to take away services from low-income people with disabilities.
"If we can talk to Sen. Bramble again we may give that to him, because he tore up the certificate of cowardice and said that he was absolutely opposed to restoring services," Tibbitts said. "We will see, since he didn't want the certificate of cowardice, we will probably see if he wants the certificate of cruelty."
Bramble emphasized that the state has a limited amount of money to fund programs, and even with the surplus, there's not enough to fund all of the proposals. The HHS committee prioritized based on need, and the Executive Appropriations Committee relied heavily on their considerations and recommendations.
"But that's not what the protesters wanted to talk about," he said.
Killpack said much of the funding went to expansion of the required programs. About a quarter of Medicaid clients constitute 70 percent of the expenses, and that will continue to increase as the baby boomers enter retirement. Combined with inflation and decreased federal funding -- he found out during the legislative session that the state wasn't getting an anticipated $30 million in federal funding for the Department of Children and Family Services -- adjustments had to be made to continue providing the same level of service.
"It isn't as though we are not funding items in Health and Human Services," he said. "We're just trying to do our best to keep our head afloat."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A7.