Nebraska Physicians Claim Medicaid Cuts Make No Economic Sense

A coalition of Nebraska physicians complains that state budget cuts have hurt access to healthcare.

Physicians representing the Nebraska Children’s Health Alliance recently held a news conference in the Capitol rotunda to denounce the 2½% cut to the Medicaid budget and argue that the cuts don’t make economic sense.

Dr. Scott Applegate, chairman of the Nebraska Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says the legislature needs to restore the cut to Medicaid.

“In the year 2011, if you lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, our state’s capital (city), and you are a child new to the Medicaid program, you had access to no pediatricians,” Applegate stated. “There were no pediatricians in the city of Lincoln in 2011 who were able to accept new Medicaid patients.”

Full story and audio: http://tinyurl.com/7z5nfkk

Source: Nebraska Radio Network