Health politics and policy

Health Politics and Policy

Matt Mead

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead stated that he and the Attorney General of Wyoming, Greg Phillips are attempting to figure out what they should do with about 105 people who are enrolled in a state health care pilot project which is doomed. This was as a result of the legislature rejecting a bill to allow about 1 million dollars which was already allocated for use to continue the program dubbed Healthy Frontiers for one more year. This decision by the legislature meant that the program would end on July the 1st Barron, 2012()

The Healthy Frontiers program was designed to take some of the pressure off the current Medicaid program through the offering of a self-directed and lower-cost alternative to health care for low-income individuals. Mead said that his preference was that the 105 clients in the program to have completed it Barron, 2012()

At the time when they began the project, there was a problem with getting the required participants for the program, the number of participants was growing. This created some problem with the clients ending up overspending their health care savings Barron, 2012()

The current Medicaid program provides about $1,000 for every resident of Wyoming. Mead said that there were other options including a bill which they would sign into law authorizing state health care exchanges rather than to let the federal government run the health care programs. This kind of exchanges would help the people to shop for the best option in terms of health insurance. Mead also stated that the Wyoming state would work on ways to keep Medicaid costs down. Although the legislature may have rejected the bill, Mead states that he would work on an alternative to reduce the health care costs even though this bill had been rejected Barron, 2012()

This Healthy Frontiers program affects the quality determinants of health since it provides quality health care to the women who had access to the program.

Rick Perry

Texas Governor, Rick Perry insisted that the state officials would find funds to finance the Texas Women's Health Program which the Obama administration refused to finance. The Obama administrate had just announced that they would be revoking federal funding for the Medicaid Women's Health Program amid a fight over several clinics that were affiliated to providers of abortion Ramshaw & Belluck, 2012()

Gov. Perry issues a letter to Thomas Suehs who is the head of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission directing him to work with the legislative leaders to identify potential sources of funds to keep the program afloat Ramshaw & Belluck, 2012()

The program itself costs around $40 million which is 90% covered by the federal government. Therefore this cut in budget would mean that the Texas state would need to find about $36 million to fund the program Ramshaw & Belluck, 2012()

Since the program provides care to about 130,000 low-income women all over the state, Gov. Perry felt that the program was extremely beneficial to the state and that is why he felt the program should continue despite the cut in federal funding. Though Perry did not specify where exactly this kind of funding for the project would come from, he said that the state has a multibillion budget which could be easily flexed to make provisions for the program. He showed optimism that accessing this funding would not be an issue for the state administration Ramshaw & Belluck, 2012()