Senate subcommittee approves DCH budget cuts

By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network

LANSING, MI – State Senate Republicans are expected to approve bigger cuts to the Medicaid health care program for poor families. The Senate Appropriations Committee is poised to vote for a 4% cut in the coming fiscal year to doctors, hospitals, and other Medicaid providers. That's on top of cuts already ordered this year.

State Senator Roger Kahn chairs the health care budget subcommittee: "By and large this budget is focused on trying to live within our means with the dollars that are available in a difficult, difficult economy."

Kahn says federal stimulus regulations won't allow the state to cut people from the Medicaid program, so the size of payments have to be rolled back.

The budget cut will go to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.