Mountain State Spotlight, Times West Virginian, Fayette Tribune – Across West Virginia, it’s already hard for many people to access health care. And unless state lawmakers change the budget they passed last month, it’s about to get even more difficult, especially for people who live in the most rural areas and those considered lower income.
Read the full article.
Starting in July, at the start of the next fiscal year, West Virginia officials will be forced to dramatically cut the state’s Medicaid budget. Roughly one-third of the state’s population relies on the government health insurance program.
Despite testimony from state officials that the program needed more funding because of increased health care costs and the end of COVID relief funding, lawmakers gave the program about $150 million less than what was needed. They also didn’t pass a proposal for a bill recommended by health officials to fund some of the increase by increasing the tax on managed care organizations.
