Top 10 Most Important Cuts to MassHealth for Seniors, the Disabled, and their Families

 

Introduction

We at Cohen & Oalican feel it is incumbent on us to keep our Elder, and disadvantaged client base abreast of the changes to our state’s Medicaid program, MassHealth in these economically challenging times.

As a result of the recession, politics, changing demographics, and many other factors, there have been some significant cuts to MassHealth, and other Health Reform programs.

Our job is not to comment on politics or right and wrong, but to help our clients who require services to get those services, without compromising their economic status. A large part of this is navigating MassHealth. Appropriate elder law attorney representation is a tremendous safeguard, our advice is to always PREPARE while you or your loved ones are healthy, not REACT. When you are in need of either, please feel free to contact us.

Briefly, Fiscal Year 2011 has seen an increase of less than 3% in funding, at a time when more demands are being placed on the Medicaid system, with healthcare cost inflation (depending on who is doing the estimates) is running anywhere between 5% and 8%. This means that funding, while it has increased, is not keeping up with healthcare inflation, at a time when overall demand on the fund is increasing due to the pure economics of more and more baby boomers retiring, and more and more younger people entering the Medicaid/MassHealth system due to unemployment from the recession.

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