In 2012 Governor, Sam Brownback, made it clear that Kansas would have no part of "Obamacare" because it was too expensive, a "budget buster of gargantuan proportions," he called it. But that was then, this is now. Brownback now has to deal with a budget crises he himself created by cutting taxes in Kansas for top earners by 26% in a trickle down experiment which is turning into an epic fail.
Last week he announced he would be taking "corrective action" by reducing spending on highways and pensions to close the $280 million hole in the budget. Additionally, as it was reported by Kansas Health Institute, Brownback will also be using $55 million from the Medicaid drug rebate program expanded under the Affordable Care Act.
The $55 million comes from a Medicaid drug rebate program that was expanded as part of the federal Affordable Care Act.
The health reform act, commonly known as Obamacare, increased the refunds that pharmaceutical companies must pay states for prescriptions provided to Medicaid patients and allowed states to collect rebates for Medicaid prescriptions administered by managed care organizations.
So now these rebates the pharmaceutical companies are required to pay states for Medicaid prescriptions for low income residents under the ACA will be instead be used to prop up Brownback's tax cuts for the wealthy.
Most of his "solutions" are short term putting off the day of reckoning until the next fiscal year beginning in July.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the research staff anticipates the budget gap growing in the next fiscal year from previous projections of $436 million to $648 million — absent more long-term solutions. For now, Brownback has focused on diverting money to finance general programs.
Ironically, perhaps, one source for $55 million in savings in the current fiscal year is a provision of the Affordable Care Act, which Brownback has opposed and criticized, KCUR reports. The provision allows states to collect money from a Medicaid drug rebate program. http://www.bizjournals.com/...
Brownback has until July to pull off what Salon calls a "supply-side miracle", find more places to trim "fat" from in the emaciated Kansas budget, like Medicaid and education, or do the unthinkable and raise taxes on his millionaire and billionaire buddies.
Until then, Brownback at least has the ACA to help delay inflicting further pain on his unwitting constituents. Thanks, Obama!