Washington, D.C. — In light of an agreement to eventually relieve North Carolina’s counties of Medicaid costs, Congressman G. K. Butterfield has called for a halt to federal legislation he filed to accomplish the same goal.
“The North Carolina General Assembly and Governor Easley deserve a great deal of credit for doing right by the counties and relieving them of growing Medicaid burden,” Butterfield said. “While I introduced the federal legislation, it was always my hope that the state would find a way to resolve this issue.”
This week, the General Assembly and Governor Easley agreed on a plan where the state increases its share of Medicaid in 2007 until it eventually funds the full cost of the program by 2009. In exchange, the state would receive a half cent of the counties’ share of the sales tax.
With the agreement in place, Butterfield wrote to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health Chairman, Frank J. Pallone, to ask that no further action be taken on the federal legislation.
Butterfield said he filed the Medicaid County Protection Act of 2007, H.R. 326, out of concern for growing financial hardship on the North Carolina counties. North Carolina was among the few states to administer Medicaid through its counties, and it was the only state that requires counties to pay a fixed percentage – 15 percent – of the federal share of Medicaid costs. Costs have been growing rapidly in recent years and without legislative relief, the costs to counties in the coming year were projected at more than $517 million.
He explained that over the past eight years, some counties have seen as much as a 144% growth in Medicaid cost but counties have no mechanism to meet these huge increases. Butterfield also pointed out that half of North Carolina’s 100 counties were committing more funding to Medicaid than for school facilities. Further, nine counties had been forced to commit more than 10% of their budgets to meet the Medicaid obligations, and nine more were on the cusp of having to dedicate a tenth of their budgets to Medicaid.
“It was an unfortunate, unfair and growing burden that hit the poorest counties the hardest,” Butterfield said. “I’m certainly pleased that this important issue has been resolved.”