Reporter: Claire Doan
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) – Budget cuts to Arizona's Medicaid program have become a matter of life and death, after the state eliminated funding for medical transplants that people on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCS) previously relied on.
Arizona is the first state in the nation to cut certain life-saving transplant surgeries, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
On Monday Governor Jan Brewer sent a letter to the new Republican leadership in Washington asking for an end to spending mandates, saying Arizona has one of the most generous Medicaid programs in the country but can no longer sustain it due to the loss of federal stimulus funding.
"The growth in Arizona Medicaid spending is a key cause of our state budget crisis and is unsustainable," Brewer wrote to incoming House Speaker John Boehner. "The federal government needs to seriously consider its mandatory benefits package."
However, many Democrats are pushing for Brewer to restore $1.4 million in funding required for transplant surgeries, arguing that the urgency of the situation merits swift action.
"We're talking about people's lives. This is very serious. People may die if the state government doesn't get its act together and solve this," State Representative Daniel Patterson told KGUN9 News.
"I think the state government and Governor Brewer's really saying the small amount of savings from cutting the transplant program -- $1.4 million – is somehow more valuable than people's lives. I don't think so."
However, Paul Senseman, spokesperson for Governor Brewer, said the state would be more apt to restore funding for transplants if the federal government completely waives the federal mandate.
"The hope is that if the federal government would once again turn back to the states the ability to design ad prioritize what their own Medicaid plans would look like, then the state could actually craft one that looks like the priorities of the state," Senseman said.
Patterson said patients don't have time to wait for action by the federal government.
"The problem is that it can take months and months. We need a short-term solution to make sure people don't die," Patterson said, arguing that Governor Brewer has discretionary stimulus funds that she could use to cover the costs of the state's medical transplants. However, Senseman directed his concerns to the federal government.
"By federal definition they're federal stimulus funds, not state stimulus funds. So the better question for Mr. Patterson is, ‘Why did the Obama Administration decide not to spend any federal stimulus funds on these kinds of procedures?'"
Last week, Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords also strongly urged the Governor to restore funding, but Senseman said he has yet to see a Democrat come up a real, viable solution to help alleviate the budget and sustain the program
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