Most recently, Barbour has tried to circumvent the Legislature and enact a Medicaid funding plan that has now drawn the ire of nearly 40 hospitals and their attorneys.
From this piece in the C-L:
The hospitals have not legally challenged the proposal that would increase their taxes, cut Medicaid reimbursements and replace the cuts with federal money associated with the health-care program. But they are exploring options in Hinds County Chancery Judge Patricia Wise's court, a friendly venue for them in the past.
They asked Wise on Friday to keep alive a case in which she recently sided with them. Her ruling essentially halted Barbour's previous plan to make deep cuts in Medicaid services until the agency provides more proof of why the cuts were needed. The state wants Wise to dismiss the case, since Barbour withdrew that plan after her ruling.
John Sneed, an attorney for the hospitals, wrote that Barbour's new plan is "a thinly veiled attempt to impermissibly fund the alleged general Medicaid budget shortfall through ... a scheme that (Hinds County Chancery Judge William Singletary) recently held to violate (state law)."
Barbour's plan uses a bit of bait and switch accounting. But what Barbour has failed to take into consideration -- apart from the idea of sharing his plan with legislative leaders before announcing he had cured the Medicaid crisis -- is that federal reimbursements often take as long as a year to reach hospitals.
A court challenge to the plan's legality is sure to come. In the meantime, more study by professionals in the field and the members of the Legislature we elected to deal with such problems should take place.
And come January, it will be time to raise the tobacco tax and help shore up Medicaid with a more proper stream of funds.
Working with people who don't always agree with you is necessary in state government. Barbour apparently still hasn't learned this.
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