The debate of whether to establish a state exchange or not was waged in the Senate Commerce Committee where on Thursday it passed 8-1. The only dissenting vote was Democratic Senator Brandon Durst. Now it will go before the whole body to be debated. Please contact members of the Senate and voice your concern on why we do not want a state exchange!
Although the Health and Welfare Committee delayed the immunizations bill from moving forward, another bill is being brought forth. It was just approved for printing and will be surfacing sometime next week. As with the last one, I am concerned about the implications that it will have. It still is an opt out system and also includes adults. This means it would be very easy for the health provider not to ask the patient if they do not want to be included in the state data base.
In the Finance Committee, the supplemental budgets passed for Medicaid and for the Child Youth Challenge Program. We are very excited about the Youth Challenge receiving its funding authority to start. But it is frustrating to establish a budget for Medicaid since the U.S. Health and Welfare Department keeps changing their rules, especially the rules establishing the amount of money that the federal government will match to state funds for newly eligible on Medicaid. This is proving to be a major burden on the legislature to try to establish a smart and responsible budget. This is why the states should be left with as much decision making responsibility as possible so that Medicaid becomes more efficient. When Health and Welfare take all of the extra money to implement the rules for Obamacare, there is no money left for important causes, such as education and prisons, in this tight economy.
Some legislation will be surfacing next week on helping ensure and protect our 2nd amendment rights.
There is no legislation yet on the personal property tax.
https://chumly.com/n/1a0cce8
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