Today, the LA Times published NSCLC’s Letter to the Editor responding to last week’s article that quoted Governor Schwarzenegger asserting the courts are “crazy” for stopping his Medicaid cuts.  The full text of NSCLC’s LTE is below.  The Federal Rights Project is presently working with the Medicaid Defense Fund to oppose certiorari in Maxwell-Jolly v. Independent Living Center of Southern California, Inc., involving the Ninth Circuit’s holding that cuts in Medi-Cal pharmacy rates were preempted by the federal Medicaid statute.  

In a message dated 5/19/10 1:58:26 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, LE3293@aol.com writes:

When we’re all hurting, let’s not take it out on the most vulnerable among us

California’s cash crunch

Re “Healthcare programs may end,” May 13

Schwarzenegger is out of line when he complains that judges are “crazy” to cry foul on healthcare cuts for the elderly and disabled. States cannot ignore the law when they find it inconvenient.

Medi-Cal is a partnership with joint responsibilities. The feds pay more than half of Medi-Cal’s budget. In return for these billions, California agreed to follow federal standards of fairness. Unfortunately, California signed off on a budget last year that ignored this agreement and targeted services for the elderly and the disabled.

The judges who ruled that the cuts were illegal followed well-established law — nothing “crazy” about that. If anything’s “crazy,” it’s cutting off programs that bring in matching federal dollars to the state.

Even when we’re all hurting, let’s not take it out on the most vulnerable among us.

Paul Nathanson
Washington

The writer is executive director of the National Senior Citizens Law Center.