Beshear Flies Around State To Drum Up Support For Medicaid Fix, Williams Challenges Him To Public Debate.

Beshear and Williams wage campaign-style battle over Medicaid budget
By Jack Brammer and Beth Musgrave

FRANKFORT — Campaign-style rhetoric flowed from Senate President David Williams and Gov. Steve Beshear on Monday as the two gubernatorial candidates battled over the best way to fix a shortfall in the state's Medicaid budget.

As Beshear made stops at four regional airports in an effort to gain public support for his Medicaid budget plan, and Williams dared Beshear to debate the Medicaid issue with him on statewide television.

"I am challenging the governor to return to Frankfort and face me head to head in a statewide televised debate at Kentucky Educational Television's earliest possible convenience so that the people of Kentucky can once and for all hear a free-flowing discussion of the serious issues at stake," Williams, R-Burkesville, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Beshear urged voters to call their Republican state senators if they want to avoid more than $38 million in cuts to K-12 education. He warned that hospitals and doctors' offices could face a 35 percent cut to Medicaid reimbursements if the legislature does not come to an agreement on the budget by April 1.

Beshear, speaking at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, said voters should be outraged that the legislature must return to Frankfort on Monday for a special legislative session to address the Medicaid shortfall when they had a 30-day legislative session to fix the budget and failed to do it.

Williams and the Republican-led Senate decided to adjourn last week without a budget agreement, Beshear said. "They quit on the people of the commonwealth," he said.

Williams said he would debate the Democratic governor Monday night if Beshear could find the time to come back to work

"I will drive to KET's studios tonight and debate the governor if they will have us, and I won't even charge the state any mileage for my trip over," Williams said. "Beshear has wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars flying around today when he should be here at the Capitol having serious discussions on this issue."

Beshear said he was using a state airplane to travel across the state to drum up support for his plan. He said the trip was not campaign-related. The cost of the trip was not immediately available.

"As governor of this state, I'll do whatever it takes to protect kids," Beshear said, referring to the Senate's proposed cuts in education.

Williams said he would face Beshear in a debate as soon as KET could work it out.

He suggested a Lincoln-Douglas style debate on the issue, with KET's Bill Goodman as the moderator. He also said he wouldn't mind if a panel of journalists asked questions, or the two could take calls from the general public during the debate.

"We'll see if Governor Beshear has the courage to face me and the rest of Kentucky to explain why he's unwilling to compromise on this issue and tell people the truth," Williams said. "The reality is we must tighten our belts and stop spending money we don't have. I look forward to the governor's answer."

Beshear is advocating transferring about $166 million from next year's Medicaid budget to this year's budget to plug a shortfall. He said the money can be recouped next year through efficiencies in privately run managed-care programs within Medicaid

Republican senators say Beshear can not generate enough savings in the $6.5 billion health-care program for the poor and disabled in the second year of the budget. If Beshear can't generate the savings, much larger spending cuts would be necessary next fiscal year, they say.

The Republican proposal includes cuts of less than half a percent in the current fiscal year and 2.26 percent cuts in the second year. Education would be spared in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, but would have a cut in the second year of the budget.

Beshear called the Republican proposal to cut education and other key parts of government "unconscionable" and "totally unnecessary."

If an agreement between the House Democrats and Senate Republicans can not be reached by April 1, Beshear said he will have to cut Medicaid providers by 35 percent in order to balance this year's budget.

Beshear provided a breakdown of how those cuts would affect certain Republican senators' districts. For example, in Republican Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr's Lexington district, about $31.5 million in Medicaid money is spent in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

If an agreement isn't reached, the city's hospitals and nursing homes would lose $2.8 million in Medicaid money, according to Beshear's figures. Those figures do not include Medicaid payments to pharmacies or doctors' offices.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/03/14/1670540/williams-challenges-beshear-to.html#ixzz1GbYpsQYa