Should wheelchairs and medicine be optional?

New York State Republican legislators have proposed eliminating Medicaid “optional services” These are important services, not required by the Federal Medicaid program, which New York has historically included in its Medicaid benefit package and which survived Governor Pataki’s repeated attempts to cut them in the 1990’s. These include dental services, drugs, personal care, physical therapy, dentures, eyeglasses, and durable medical equipment.

But such cuts now could be illegal under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the “stimulus bill”, which requires states receiving enhanced federal matching dollars for their Medicaid program to maintain Medicaid eligibility as of July 1, 2008 in exchange for the money. Read about the litigation resulting from California’s attempts to cut adult dental, speech therapy, podiatry, audiology, chiropractic services, optometry, and psychology services, from their Medicaid program here and let us know what you think.