State News: State budgets and Medicaid continue to draw headlines

The Associated Press/The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas lawmakers will add $5 million to expand mental health services — specifically veteran-to-veteran peer support groups — in the state. "Gov. Rick Perry on Monday announced the plan that calls for directing money from the state Health and Human Services Commission budget toward mental health treatment programs for veterans and their families" (11/9).

The New York Times: In an address Monday to the New York state Legislature, Gov. David Paterson called for wide cuts to cover a budget shortfall. Critics believe that New York can no longer afford to spend more than any other state on programs such as Medicaid. "Education and health care advocates have angrily opposed proposed cuts to Medicaid and school financing, the two largest parts of the state's budget, and the powerful labor unions that dominate debate in the capital are determined to fight them" (Hakim, 11/9).

The Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette reports that Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has asked the West Virginia Health and Human Resources department how much a proposed Medicaid expansion in Congress would cost that state. "In a letter dated Friday, the Republican congresswoman asked Hardy to estimate how the Affordable Health Care for America Act would affect West Virginia's budget, saying the legislation could 'lead to a troubling unfunded mandate for state governments'" (Knezevich, 11/8).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.