Schimminger's Plan

Not getting nearly enough attention is Assemblyman Robin Schimminger's Medicaid proposal:

* allowing counties to decide which optional services and categories of eligibility included in the state program will be available to their residents, * eliminating or limiting certain optional services statewide, * imposing new co-payments and increasing existing co-payments, * standardizing eligibility criteria, * closing long-term-care eligibility loopholes, * raising the tax credit for long-term-care insurance, * increasing the number of Medicaid recipients enrolled in managed care, * maximizing Medicare coverage for individuals who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, and * instituting a 90-day state residency requirement. "Even with these changes," Schimminger said, "Medicaid would continue to provide a sound package of benefits but more in line with the coverage most other people receive. Counties and the state would realize savings, and the state could use part of its savings to assume a greater share of counties’ Medicaid costs."

Sounds reasonable to me. Especially the part about allowing the counties to select what optional services they choose to offer. That goes to the heart of letting upstate be upstate. Kudos to a Clark '04 vet.