Cutting Medicaid could leave hundreds of thousands of people across the country facing life-threatening illnesses on their own, patient advocates said today. The advocacy group Families USA partnered with the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Lung Association to determine how many people with cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic lung disease depend on Medicaid. Reports from four major states—California, New York, Texas and Illinois—were released today, with more to come in the next few weeks. The reports come as the deficit supercommittee considers ways to shrink the deficit by $1.5 trillion, including massive cuts to health care entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. “Cuts to Medicaid would pose a specific and dangerous threat to hundreds of thousands of [people] who depend on the program for regular treatment for such medical conditions as cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease, heart disease and stroke,” the groups said in a joint statement. “Without Medicaid, many of these seriously ill [people] would no longer be able to fill essential prescriptions, keep up with key screenings or see a doctor if their condition worsens or recurs.” Click here to view the California report.

California provider groups say the state is intentionally keeping them in the dark about how major proposed cuts to the state's Medicaid program will affect access to care. It's been two months since California formally requested CMS approval to slash Medicaid by $1.5 billion through provider rate cuts, new mandatory co-pays and limits on the number of physician visits. The state's care providers are up in arms over California's refusal to share information on how those cuts would affect Medicaid beneficiaries' ability to get care. "They're stonewalling us," said Francisco Silva, CMA general counsel, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request with CMS two weeks ago to determine whether the state has done its homework on how the cuts would affect physician access. (Millman, 8/30) Source: www.politicopro.com/story/healthcare/?id=5533